1. Year 1
Phonics
Screening

2. What is phonics?
Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. After they learn the sounds, they are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word.
Our children have a Read Write Inc. lesson everyday and they are encouraged to use their phonic knowledge when reading and writing in other lessons too.
There are around 44 different sounds and 144 different ways to spell these sounds.

4. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the phonics screening check during the same week in June.
Children in Year 2 will also take the check if they did not achieve the required result when they were in Year 1.
The aim of the check is to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding and blending skills to an appropriate standard.
This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn in Year 2, to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of Year 2.

5. What will the children be expected to do?
The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together, e.g. d-o-g - dog
The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and therefore the children will be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ words, known as “alien words” in school.
THIS IS NOT A READING TEST

7. What will the children be expected to do?
The children will complete the check one at a time, in a quiet area of the school.
Miss Beavis will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.
The test contains 40 words, which the child will read aloud.
The words are a mixture of real words and pseudo words (nonsense words).
The screening will take approximately 5-10 minutes with each child, although all children are different and will complete the check at their own pace.

9. When will the screening take place?
The screening will take place throughout the week beginning Monday 11th June. The children must have taken the test by Friday 22nd June, so it is very important your child is in school during this time.
The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

10. How can you help? By knowing the 44 sounds and helping your child to
learn them.
By knowing how to blend using Fred Talk for reading m_a_t
By making up and reading ‘alien’ words as well as real words.

12. How can you help? www.phonicsplay.co.uk www.letters-and-sounds.com
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online.

13. How can you help?
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only thing needed to become a fluent reader.
Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:
Sound out
Re-read to check it makes sense.
Use pictures for clues.
Ask questions about the book.
And most importantly ENJOY READING!

15. Questions?