The Phonics Screening Check

Presented by Elizabeth Nonweiler www.teachtoread.com [email protected]

Overview • What is the Phonics Screening Check? • Why was it introduced and made compulsory? • What are the results? • How can schools make sure children succeed?

What is the Phonics Screening Check?

What is it for? It is to check that children can decode words

to an expected level.

Who is it for? Children in state-funded schools in England Year 1: All children Year 2: Those who did not succeed in Year 1

What does it check? It checks children’s decoding skills. Higher order reading skills, like reading comprehension, can be checked later.

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

Why nonsense words? • ‘vap’ and ‘jound’ are new to all • cannot be read by using memory or vocabulary • a fair way to assess ability to decode

Children’s Materials – Example from 2015

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: cvc

cat this

mash

moon

vcc

act

ccvc

pram

greed

clock

cvcc

bend

feeds

chips

Phonics Check Words 2015 Section 1 fip

pon

hab

ulb

dack

chob

nurt

queet

plap

froin

melp

heent

shed

long

soil

chart

crab

fresh

wink

shuts

Phonics Check Graphemes Section 2: ph

wh

a-e

e-e

i-e

o-e

u-e

ai

ay

ie

igh

ea

oa

ow

ou

au

aw

ew

ue

er

ir

ur

air

oy

Blending Consonants Section 2: cv cvc ccvc cvcc ccvcc cccv cccvc c

say lair thigh mate shame stove stove bread thrush joust clump clowns shrimp spree strict

Phonics Check Words 2015 Section 2: yair

blies

keam

whape

braft

thrant

sprop

strow

law

glued

zoom

rice

grand

cloaks

scrap

strike

river

diving

beehive

midnight

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 each year so far)

When is it administered? Schools may choose any time in a given week in June.

2016 – week beginning 13th June

What happens if children do not succeed? School provides extra support in Y2. Children are checked again in June.

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 • Statutory guidance: Phonics screening check • Phonics screening check: 2015 materials • Phonics screening check: administration

• Key Stage 1: assessment and reporting arrangements • Phonics screening check: sample materials and 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 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 help schools to judge their performance • to encourage schools to set high expectations

What are the results?

Summary of Year 1 Results Percentage meeting the required standard: • 32% in 2011 (in the pilot study) • 58% in 2012 • 69% in 2013

• 74% in 2014

Results by the End of Year 2 88% met the required standard by June 2014 includes both those who succeeded in Year 1 in 2013 and those who retook the check in Year 2 in 2014

Scores 2012 – 2014

Notice the spike at 32 in 2012 and 2013.

Who met the required standard in Year 1? 2014 • all:

74%

• first language not English:

74%

• girls:

78%

• boys:

70%

• eligible free school meals:

61%

• Indian:

84%

• Gypsy/Roma travellers:

28%

Successful Schools Schools where 95% or more succeeded: 2013

276

2014

611

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 St George’s School, Battersea (2015):

• 55% entitled to free school meals • 100% succeeded.

Conclusion A school in an area of economic deprivation

can achieve impressive results.

How can schools make sure children succeed?

What do they do in St George’s? They emphasise • leadership

• developing spoken language • structured teaching from nursery • following a phonics programme rigorously from Reception

National Curriculum Pupils should be taught to: read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that

do not require them to use other strategies to work out words

Phonics Screening Check Evaluation • Final report June 2015 • By the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) • Questionned 1225 teachers and literacy co-ordinators

How to teach reading - Responses 60% of teachers questionned ticked one of the following statements: • Phonics is taught discretely alongside other cueing strategies.

• Phonics is always integrated as one of a range of cueing strategies. Is this why some schools do less well?

Phonics Strategy Teach children • how sounds are represented by letters • how to decode letters to say sounds • how to blend (synthesise) sounds to read words

Phonics Strategy

cat

c..a..t ... cat

sheep

sh..ee..p ... sheep

Other Strategies “Sight words” without phonics Guessing strategies

“Sight Words” Without Phonics •

Up to 4,000 words can be memorised.

•

At least 20,000 to read texts at secondary school level

Guessing Strategies

Books for Different Strategies

Shopping What does a newsagent sell? What does a toyshop sell? What does a chemist sell?

What does a supermarket sell? Where can you buy these things?

Shopping Wh at does a news a gent sell?

Wh at does a toyshop sell? Wh at does a chemist sell? Wh at does a supermarket sell? Wh ere can you buy these things? whole language

The Ice Cream Can I get an ice cream? Yes, I can! Come on, run to the ice cream van. I want the big one.

Look at that! Look out, Kipper! Oh no! Splat!

The I ce Cream Can I get an ice cream? Yes, I can! Co me on, run to the ice cream van.

I want the big one. Look at that! Look out, Kipper! Oh no!

Splat! mixed strategies

(original Oxford Reading Tree)

Insects An insect has six legs. It has a hard skin.

Insects can shed this skin to get bigger. Lots of insects have wings. Insects hatch from eggs ... ... end as butterflies!

Insects An insect has six legs. It has a hard skin.

Insects can shed this skin to get bigger. Lots of insects have wings. Insects hatch from eggs ... ... end as butterflies! synthetic phonics

(Jolly Reader)

Why not teach a range of strategies? Memorising enough words without phonics is impossible. Guessing strategies don’t work. Children who find phonics difficult get into bad habits. (and other strategies won’t help with the Phonics Check)

How to Prepare Children to Read Nonsense Words

Teach nonsense words? No. Nonsense words are for assessment, not for teaching. Teach real words that are unfamiliar to children.

Early Unfamiliar Real Words s

a

t

p

i

n

sap tint stint span satin

Include an unfamiliar word in every phonics lesson.

Phonics Check Graphemes Section 2 ph

wh

a-e

e-e

i-e

o-e

u-e

ai

ay

ie

igh

ea

oa

ow

ou

au

aw

ew

ir

ur

air

ue

oy

Unfamiliar Words for Section 2 newt

tar

scribe

ail

adorn thorax

farthing

glide

joist

sphinx

prime

paw

glade

ploy

void

croak

gloat

shoal

shorn

theme

bait

twine

plight

mope

probe

hark

yarn

larva

moat

curd

lurch

spurn

bane

dale

stoat

hake

abode

Include an unfamiliar word in every phonics lesson.

Explain nonsense words to name pretend animals a week before the check.

No Nonsense Phonics

24 books designed to encourage children to

use phonics to read unfamiliar words

Decode and develop spoken language.

A blimp is a non-rigid airship. It is filled with a light gas called helium that lifts it up and keeps it in shape. Blimps can stay in the air for days.

African Animals

Mandrills are the largest monkeys in the world. They live with hundreds of other mandrills in forests and climb high up in trees. They can roar loudly.

Assessment and Keeping Up

Assess • letter-sound correspondences • oral blending • word reading – Use a previous Phonics Check.

Keep Up • Aim for “keep up”, not “catch up”. • Teach all children to the expected level. • Provide extra lessons for children who struggle.

Why recheck in Year 2? To make sure all children are given the help they need to be able to decode words before Year 3.

For Success with the Phonics Check • Daily lessons from Reception. • Follow an effective programme rigorously. • Only phonics for reading words.

• An unfamiliar real word every day. • Only reading books children can decode. • Extra lessons for those who struggle.

The child who can’t read asks, “What is this word?”

The child who can read asks, “What does this word mean?”

Ruth Miskin