1. Cherry Tree Phonics meeting.
Phonics Workshop 2015

2. What is Phonics? Children have 20mins daily discrete phonics lessons;
Children are taught to read by recognising words have separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these units together to read the whole word: they segment to spell.
The same sound can be represented differently.

4. New vocabulary Blending
The sliding of letters together to form a word.
Segmenting
The splitting up of words to help with spelling.
Sound talk
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a word.
Cat shut
Digraph (sh, ch, th)
Vowel digraph (ai, ie)
Split digraph.
This is where a letter drops between a vowel digraph. Smile.

5. What is the test?
Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking a statutory phonics screening check in the same week.
The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons.
The focus of the check is to provide evidence of children’s decoding and blending skills.
It is not about understanding or wider reading skills.

6. What will the children do?
The test takes about ten minutes per child.
They will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. e.g. d-o-g – dog
The check will consist of 40 words and non-words;
Children will be told if the word is a real or ‘alien’ word, with a corresponding alien image.

7. Examples of words
spike
jorb
zalskarld
spoilt
Phonics Workshop 2015

8. How will it be administered?
Teachers will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.
The children will complete the check one to one in a quiet area of the school.
We are not permitted to indicate to the children whether they have correctly read/sounded out the word, or place our finger under phonemes to help.

9. And the results...?
They will be scored against a national standard (last year this was 32 out of 40)
We will inform you of whether they fall below or within this standard.
If your child’s score falls below the national standard they can re-take the Phonics Screening Check in year 2.

10. When will it happen?
  Last year the screening test took place straight after the holiday. Probably week             beginning 8th June.
  It has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

11. How can you help?
Encourage them to use their phonics to read the word they need. Children can practise their phonics by reading and playing games online. They particularly like - phonics play and letters-and-sounds.com
* Buried Treasure
* Poop deck Pirates
* Picnic on Pluto

12. How can you help?
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only way you become a good reader. Continue to read with your child regularly, practising phonics and also encourage them to:
Check reading makes sense, look at pictures clues.
Ask questions about the book;
Use the library. Have fun.
Encourage independence, allow children time to try.

13. Questions?