Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the phonics screening check in the same week in June. The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of year 2.
This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn in year 2 and to identify children that need additional support.
Children will be given 40 words to read. 20 of the words are real words and 20 of them are non-words. The non-words or ‘nonsense’ words will have a picture of an alien next to them so children will know they are not real words.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together e.g. b-e-g = beg or e-c-t = ect
The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and therefore the children will be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ words.
What you can do to help
- Use your child’s phonics book at home to practise sound recognition and reading of words by sounding out and blending.
- Use the internet or apps to play phonics games with your child. Some of these games include nonsense words which is good practise for the screening.
Please take a look at our phonics presentation