National Phonics Test year 1

waiting4disney · 22 Apr 19, 06:53 PM

DS is in year 1 and his reading has come on fantastically recently.
He has the phonics test in June so we had a lot of homework over Easter to practice for it.
The words DS just read straight out rather than sounded out which is a fail.
There were some very big words too so I was very impressed and didn't want to tell him he needed to go back to sounding out not reading.

Interested to hear from any teachers on this really. As far as I understand it the phonics test is mainly to rank schools not for individual assessment...

I know phonics is a really important skill but once they can read the words by sight (e.g one word was Phillippa - so not a word/name he recognised he could just read it) it seems like going backwards asking them to sound it out I.e
Train
T - R - AI - N

Any thoughts? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Forest32 · 22 Apr 19, 07:27 PM

I am a year 1 teacher and it�s absolutely fine to read the words straight out. We teach children to segment words they are unsure of and will remind them about this at the start of the test. They are marked purely on whether they have read the word correctly or not. It�s great that your child is confident enough to read them straight out! Pass rate for the test is usually 32 out of 40.

waiting4disney · 22 Apr 19, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by Forest32

I am a year 1 teacher and it�s absolutely fine to read the words straight out. We teach children to segment words they are unsure of and will remind them about this at the start of the test. They are marked purely on whether they have read the word correctly or not. It�s great that your child is confident enough to read them straight out! Pass rate for the test is usually 32 out of 40.

Fab thanks. They way they put it, it sounded like you couldn't just read the words. Phew.
He had a slow start with reading then suddenly starting coming on in leaps and bounds.

Weddingnyc · 22 Apr 19, 08:30 PM

The kids school did really badly a few years back, and the teachers were really pushing for the kids to sound out the letters - I think so they didn�t rush and guess a word or get it wrong (DS liked to read the beginning of the word and guess the rest).
They called the made up words �alien� words and pretended little aliens were saying them.

Floridatilly · 22 Apr 19, 08:33 PM

We had a parents evening just before Easter and I was shocked at the tests the class were doing (also year 1) I assume it�s all schools?
There was reading (answering questions from written text) , phonics, maths and another one I think.
That�s a lot of pressure on the teachers. I don�t think the children realise it�s a test as such at 5 & 6 years old luckily

waiting4disney · 22 Apr 19, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by Floridatilly

We had a parents evening just before Easter and I was shocked at the tests the class were doing (also year 1) I assume it�s all schools?
There was reading (answering questions from written text) , phonics, maths and another one I think.
That�s a lot of pressure on the teachers. I don�t think the children realise it�s a test as such at 5 & 6 years old luckily

I've told DS it's just a quiz and makes no difference how he does as I don't want him worrying about it.
Though they do have spelling tests every week.

I think the other tests may be trials. I'm sure I read that some areas were trailing extra tests 🤔🤔 Forest32 may know more.

Forest32 · 22 Apr 19, 08:52 PM

Every school is different when it comes to assessments. However, year 1 phonics screening check, year 2 SATs and year 6 SATs are national assessments and the results are published. Other schools may choose to do extra assessments or take part in assessment trials. At my school year one treat the phonics test like a quiz and seem to take it in their stride. My little boy is taking his this year so I know how it feels for parents!