1. Year 1 Phonics screening check Parent Workshop 2018
Summer term 2018

2. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
Statutory assessment for year 1 children
Week beginning: Monday 11th June 2018
Consists of 40 fully decodable words, split into 2 sections
Contains a mix of real and nonsense words
The idea is to check phonic knowledge. It is not a test of reading ability.
The check takes approximately 5-10 mins with a known adult.
Schools are required to report to parents whether their child has met the required threshold or not.
Children who do not meet the required standard will retake the check in the summer term of year 2.

3. What does your child do in school?
Practise their sounds
Apply this knowledge when blending
Read real and nonsense words
Play games such as ‘buried treasure’
Many versions are available free online

4. Ways in which you can help your child…
Practise their sound mat regularly– ensure they are confident in recognising them quickly and out of order.
Be a phoneme spotter! What phonemes can they spot in their reading book or any other reading material?
Particularly focus on the split digraphs as children often find these the hardest.
Play phonic games e.g. Phonics play website e.g. ‘Buried treasure’.
Read lots and lots!

5. The importance of reading
Remember the school reading scheme book forms just a small part of what you can read with your child.
Enjoy a wide range of reading material for example:
Read to your child.
Make reading a pleasure and not a chore.
Does your child see you read?
Research shows fathers reading to children has an impact on children’s outcomes.
Comics and graphic novels (a fantastic source of new vocabulary)
Magazines
Non-fiction books
Leaflets
Road signs
Lyrics
e-books
Information boards etc

7. Spelling in year 1 Segmenting – hearing every sound in each word.
Learning that sounds can be pronounced in different ways e.g. <a> ‘bat’, ‘acorn’, ‘father’, ‘want’ etc.
Learning that a phoneme can be represented by different graphemes e.g. /ai/ ‘play’, ‘rain’, ‘bake’ etc.
Best bet
Tricky words – specifically words that are not phonetically plausible at their phonic stage.
High frequency words and common exception words.

8. Spelling in year 1
A move from phonetically plausible e.g. plai to making a decision about the which grapheme to use e.g. play.
Learning how to add suffixes (-ing, -ed, -er, -est).
Learning to add prefix un-.
Learn how to spell longer words (breaking a word into syllables or find a word inside a word).
Changing words from singular to plural using simple rules.

9. Handwriting Encourage a good seating position
Does your child need to angle their page?
Encourage correct, comfortable pencil hold. There are lots of different pencil grips that can help.
Ensure all the letters are being formed in the correct way.
Drawing, colouring, building Lego models, playing with playdoh, using a knife and fork, threading etc. are all activities that strengthen and improve fine motor skills.
Find opportunities for writing at home e.g. shopping lists, birthday cards, when a real focus can be given to handwriting.