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YEAR 1 PHONICS SCREENING CHECK. An Information Session for Parents and Carers. What is phonics?. Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read quickly and skilfully.
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YEAR 1 PHONICS SCREENING CHECK An Information Session for Parents and Carers
What is phonics? • Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read quickly and skilfully. • Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word. • Children have a 20 minute phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use strategies learnt here to read and write in other contexts.
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. (Week beginning 16th June) • The Phonics Screening Check is a quick and easy assessment of your child’s phonic knowledge. • The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of Year 2. • It helps the school to confirm whether each child has made the expected progress. • This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what each child needs to learn in Year 2.
What will the children be expected to do? • Your child will sit with a teacher who they know and will be asked to read 40 words aloud. There will be 2 sections with 20 words in each section. • Your child may have read some of the words before, while others will be completely new. • The check normally takes between 5 and 10 minutes to complete however there is no time limit. If your child is struggling, the teacher will stop the check. The check is carefully designed not to be in any way stressful for your child.
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 also be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ or ‘non-words’.
Non-words • The test will contain a mix of real words and ‘non-words’. • Your child will be told before the test that there will be non-words that he or she will have not seen before. The children will be familiar with this because we already regularly use non-words in our phonics teaching. • Non-words are important to include because they provide an opportunity to assess children’s phonic knowledge in isolation. Children have to use their decoding skills without the input of their memory of familiar words. • All non-words are accompanied with a picture of an imaginary creature to provide a context for the pupil to ensure that they don’t try to match the word to one in their vocabulary.
When and how will the Screening Check take place? • The screening will take place throughout the week beginning Monday 16th June.The children cannot retake the test at any other time so it is very important your child is in school during this week. • The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part. • The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school. • Your child’s class teacher will carry out the check with your child.
After the check • We will tell you about your child’s progress in phonics and how he or she has done in the screening check in the final half term of Year 1. • If your child has found the check difficult, we will explain further support that will be put in place for your child. • All children are individuals who develop at different rates. The screening check is designed to ensure that teachers are aware which children need additional support with phonic decoding.
What are we doing at school? • Daily phonics sessions – introducing, practising and applying new phonemes and alternative pronunciations • Phonic-based home and school reading books • Guided reading including phonic based games, stories and activities • Phonic-based homework
Helping your child with phonics • Phonics works best when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and writing. • Parents play a key role in helping with this.
How can you help?Back to Basics! • Digraph - 2 letters making one sound cow • Trigraph - 3 letters making one sound night • Split digraph - 2 vowels with a consonant in between. Used to be known as the ‘magic e’! spine- i_e
How can you help? Articulation
Some simple steps to help your child to read through phonics • We will send home practise words including real and non-words. Encourage your child to sound out words from left to right rather than looking at pictures to guess the words. • When reading a book, once your child has read an unfamiliar word you can talk about what it means and help him or her to follow the story. • Try to make time to read with your child every day. Grandparents and older brothers and sisters can help too. Encourage your child to blend the sounds all the way through a word. • Games like ‘I Spy’ can also be an enjoyable way of teaching children about sounds and letters.
Some simple steps to help your child to read through phonics • Encourage your child to use their sound mat when writing and use their actions to find the sound they need. • Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’ • http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/BuriedTreasure2.html
Demonstration of phonic based activities • Please have a walk around the hall and take time to explore a range of phonic based activities which your child enjoys in school. • During this time, myself, Year 1 teachers and teaching assistants will be happy to explain the activities and answer any questions you may have. • We will then come back together to complete the session and give out some useful information.
Final thoughts…. Please remember that phonics is not the only skill needed to become a fluent reader. Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to: Sound words out from left to right Re-read words to check they make sense Use pictures for clues Ask questions about books And most importantly….
