The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Presented by Elizabeth Nonweiler

Overview

• What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?

• Why was it introduced and made compulsory?

• What do the results of the first Check in 2012 tell us?

• Is it good for our children?

What is the Year 1 Phonics

Screening Check?

It is to check that children can decode words

to an expected level.

What is it for?

Who is it for?

Y1 pupils in maintained schools in England

What is in the check?

• 40 words

• Progression from easier words to expected level

• Real words and nonsense words

• Common real words and less common real words

• One syllable and two syllable words

Practice Sheets

Phonics Check Graphemes

Section 1

s t p m b n c d

f g h j k l r v

w y z x ss ff ll zz

ck sh ch th ng qu

a i e o u

ee oi oo or ar

Blending Consonants

Section 1:

vcc act

ccvc trip

ccvvc snort

ccvcc plush

cvcc mulp

cvvcc doost

ccvcc thump

Phonics Check Words 2012

Section 1

pib vus yop elt

desh chab poil queep

stin proom sarps thend

chip jazz farm thorn

stop truck jump lords

Phonics Check Graphemes

Section 2

ph wh

a-e e-e i-e o-e u-e

ai ay ie igh ea oy

oa ow ou

au aw ew ue

ir ur air

Blending Consonants

Section 2:

ccvcv trade

ccvvc plied

cccvcc thrill

cvvcc burst

ccvcc gland

ccvvcc craint

cccvcc shrimp

cccvv sclow

cccvc strop

cccvc v splime

cccvc c scrimp

Phonics Check Words 2012

Section 2

kigh girst baim yune

flods groiks strom splaw

fair flute goat shine

crept shrubs scrap stroke

index turnip waiting portrait

How is it administered?

• one-to-one

• with a teacher the child knows

• takes 4 – 9 minutes with most children

What is allowed?

• either sound and blend the word or just say the word

• in any accent

• taking into account any difficulties with pronunciation

• self-correcting

• being generally encouraged

What is not allowed?

• saying the sounds without blending

• being encouraged to have another go

• having several goes

and then having the correct one accepted

(The final one must be scored.)

• being told whether correct or not

What is the threshold for success?

31 to 34 out of 40 words to be read accurately

(32 words in June 2012)

When is it administered?

Schools may choose any time 17th – 21st June 2013.

Timetable Summary

• Now available on line Check administrators’ guide

• 3-7 June Receive Phonics Check materials.

• 17-21 June Administer the Phonics Check.

• End of summer term Submit results.

What happens

if children do not succeed?

School provides extra support.

Children are checked again near the end of Y2.

Who sees the results?

• Parents

– only their own child’s

• Ofsted and Local Authorities

– school-level results on RaiseOnline

• Anyone

– local authority and national results

Sources for More Information

• Year 1 phonics screening check FAQs

• Key Stage 1 Assessment and reporting arrangements

• Check administrators’ guide: Phonics screening check

• Phonics Performance Descriptor

• Year 1 phonics screening check training video

from www.education.gov.uk

Why was the Phonics Check

introduced and made compulsory?

The Need to Improve Teaching

“Although this country is one of the world’s highest

spenders on education, too many children are

failing. When teachers should be helping children to

develop a lifetime’s love of reading, poor teaching

strategies and practices are condemning too many

children to a lifelong struggle.”

Nick Gibb 2011

Purpose for Individual Children

• to confirm that individual children

have grasped the basics of decoding

• to identify children who need extra help

Purpose for Parents

• to give parents confidence that their child

has learnt the crucial skill of phonic decoding

Purpose for Schools

• to provide a national benchmark for phonic decoding

• to allow schools to judge their performance

• to encourage schools to set high expectations

Purpose for Government

• to provide an annual national snapshot of decoding

• to ensure that government is accountable for

the effectiveness of the methods it promotes

What do the results of the first Check

in 2012 tell us?

The Results

• 592,000 children took part.

• 58% reached the expected standard.

Conclusion

Either:

• The standard was too high for 42% of Year 1 children.

or

• Schools should change what they do in order to

ensure that nearly all children succeed.

Who reached the expected standard?

• girls: 62%

• boys: 54%

• eligible for free school meals: 44%

• Indian ethnicity: 70%

• travellers/gypsies: 16%

• with English an additional language: 58%

One Conclusion

Children with English as an additional language

are as good at decoding as other children.

What about individual schools?

The government has not published the results

of individual schools.

Some schools have published their results.

An Example of an Individual School

A school in Wandsworth:

• 97% succeeded.

• 55% entitled to free school meals

• 29% registered with special educational needs

An Example of an Individual School

A school in Hackney:

• 93% succeeded.

• 55% entitled to free school meals

• 32% registered with special educational needs

An Example of an Individual School

A school in Gateshead:

• 93% succeeded.

• 28% entitled to free school meals.

• 19% registered with special educational needs

Conclusion

Schools in areas of deprivation

can achieve impressive results.

An Example of an Individual School

A school in Weston-super-Mare

• 35% succeeded in the pilot year.

• 88% succeeded in 2012.

Conclusion

The results of a school can improve

considerably in just one year.

Nonsense Words

Some children read nonsense words wrongly

as real words,

e.g., strom as storm

Conclusion

Either the children:

• could not decode accurately

or

• were careless on the day

or

• were used to reading by guessing words they

already knew without looking at the letters carefully

Is the Phonics Screening Check

good for our children?

Many educators have concerns.

Eleven of their concerns follow.

Concerns

A Phonetic Language?

English is not a phonetic language ... is it?

A Phonetic Language?

Yes! English writing is 100% phonetic.

In English letters represent sounds.

A Phonetic Language?

Some words have unusual letter-sound correspondences.

two they one sugar are yacht sign

The Phonics Check includes only common correspondences.

More to Reading than Phonics

How can this be a good check of children’s

reading? There is more to reading than phonics.

More to Reading than Phonics

This is only a check of simple decoding.

Higher order reading skills can be checked later.

A Rich Language Curriculum

Will teachers teach phonics at the expense

of other aspects of English?

A Rich Language Curriculum

There is no reason why this should happen.

The English curriculum should include phonics,

developing spoken language, listening to an adult

reading, poetry, rhymes, ...

New Information?

Teachers already know what their children can do.

New Information?

Some teachers were surprised by the results.

Others learned specific information:

“I know from the children I've used the check with

that there is a group who need more work decoding

words with split vowels.”

New Information?

Some teachers did know which children could

not decode the words.

These children had not been taught the code.

Children’s Development

Some children may not be ready for phonics in Year 1.

Would it not be better to wait?

Children’s Development

Children who are considered not ready for phonics

are in danger of falling further and further behind.

Labelled as Failing?

Children should not be told they are failures

when they are only six.

Labelled as Failing?

Of course not.

A quote from the TES message board:

“Ours saw it as a huge treat and even asked if

they could come again today.”

Reading for Pleasure

Will a focus on phonics stop children

from enjoying reading?

Children who struggle to decode do not like reading

Children who can decode easily can enjoy reading.

Reading for Pleasure

Other Strategies

Every child is different.

Should children not choose from a range of strategies

to read words?

Other Strategies

Memorising whole words by shape and patterns?

It is impossible to remember enough words

or to read unfamilar words.

Angelina

• 6 years old

• taught phonics

• could not blend sounds

• poor self-esteem

Angelina

• The teacher stopped teaching Angelina phonics.

• She showed Angelina pictures with words under.

• Angelina learned to read many words.

horse

Angelina

• Could read only words she had memorised.

• Could not read unfamiliar words.

Other Strategies

Guessing from context or first letter?

It does not work, except with texts for young children.

It may become a habit that is difficult to break.

Nonsense Words

Do good readers fail because they read

nonsense words as real words?

Nonsense Words

A child who reads strom as storm has a problem.

Children taught to read with phonics from the start

do not make this sort of mistake.

Lewis

• 10 years old

• articulate

• professional parents

• used context and a few letters to guess words

• read at 7 year old level

Lewis

• Did not read accurately.

• Saw ‘slit’.

• Read ‘spilled’.

Lewis

• taught synthetic phonics for a year

• 12 years old – reading comprehension age 13½

Teachers – Professionals

Surely, the government should trust teachers

and not impose this phonics check.

Teachers – Professionals

Many teachers have not been trained in the

teaching of reading and the alphabetic code.

Teachers – Professionals

Some teachers are desperate to teach every child

to read, but they are not supported by senior

management.

Unfortunately, some schools need an incentive to

ensure the necessary support.

Expensive

It must be wrong to spend so much on this check.

Expensive

It must be worth it if it means that all children

receive the help they need to read

before they begin Key Stage 2.

Reading for Meaning

Will the Phonics Check encourage decoding

at the expense of reading for meaning?

Accurate decoding is essential,

in order for children to read for meaning.

Reading for Meaning

Guess from the context

or

use phonics to read words accurately

and context to get to the meaning?

Which is best for reading for meaning?

First look at the picture.

Then guess a word you already know.

First use phonics to read the word.

Then use the context to get close to the meaning.

A Quiz about Reading for Meaning

Can you use

• phonics to read unfamiliar words

• context to get close to the meaning of those words?

Reading for Meaning

The tippet is back in fashion. Tippets are exactly

what you should be wearing over your winter

coat if you want to fit in with this season's

elegant 50s look.

Can you pronounce it?

What does it mean?

Certain gastropods use their radula teeth to

hunt other gastropods and bivalve molluscs,

scraping away the soft parts for ingestion.

Can you pronounce it?

What does it mean?

Reading for Meaning

The lemon is a hesperidium.

Can you pronounce it?

What does it mean?

Reading for Meaning

Conclusion

As a result of the Phonics Check

more children will get the teaching they need

to learn to read well.