In June, all Year 1 pupils in England will take a Phonics Screening Check. The aim of the test is to assess your child’s progress in phonics and reading. Here we’ll explain everything you need to know about the assessment and how make sure your children are prepared for it.

When is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?

The Phonics Screening Check takes place in June. In 2023, it will be happening in the week beginning Monday 12 June, for all pupils in Year 1 and for those who didn’t pass last year and are currently in Year 2.

What happens in the KS1 Phonics Screening Check?

The screening check is very informal so your child won’t even know that they are being assessed.

It will be done as a one-to-one test with Mrs Hawkins. The check should take less than 10 minutes. Before the test, the teacher will practise with a few words to ensure that the child understands the activity. Children will be asked to read and pronounce a set of words consisting of real words and nonsense words (also called pseudo words, alien words or non-words).

There are two sections in the 40-word test. The first section is made up of simpler words, from the earlier stages of phonics learning. The second section includes some of the trickier words from the later phases (For example: split digraphs ~ a-e. i-e, u-e, o-e, e-e).

A lot of children will find the experience very enjoyable and funny as alien words are silly and funny by nature and are accompanied by a picture of an alien, which the children like to look at!

What is the Year 1 Phonics Check checking for?

The aim of the Phonics Screening check is to give teachers and parents information on how their children are progressing in their reading. Reading has been shown to be a crucially important indicator of a child’s academic attainment and development in all areas of learning. It is therefore vital to recognise any struggles early on and be able to offer extra help at this early stage.

The test helps to identify children that may need additional support with their phonics.

Why are nonsense words included in the phonics screening test?

A nonsense word has no meaning but can be phonetically decoded. They are included in the test to see if children can use their phonics knowledge to read words that they haven’t seen before. This ensures that they are not just relying on memory to read.

Some pseudo-words look very similar to real words so, to avoid confusion, they are shown alongside an alien/monster. This also makes the test a lot more fun!

What happens if my child fails the phonics screening test?

Don’t worry – it is an informal progress check and a way to help identify if children need any extra support with their letters and sounds. The ‘pass’ threshold for past phonics screening tests is typically 30-32 marks (out of 40), which most children will meet.

If your child scores lower than the threshold, don’t worry. Children are all different and learn at different speeds. The teacher will work with you to create a plan to give them extra support and help your child to catch up. Children will re-sit the phonics screening test during the next Summer Term in Year 2.

How can you help your child prepare for the Year 1 phonics check?

There is no need to put any pressure on your child; the screening check is there to ensure children’s reading is on track and to allow teachers to offer extra support if needed. However, with the limited time teachers have for one-on-one learning in the classroom, most children will really benefit from extra phonics support at home.

Here are some ideas to help your child get ready for the Year 1 phonics check:

• Familiarise yourself with phonics and review what they have learnt so far.
• Play lots of phonics games! Children tend to learn best through play at this age so make phonics practice fun!
• Complete the homework sheets being sent home.
• Read, read and read some more! Keep reading with children and keep introducing new words that they have to sound out and decode.

Sounds (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences) Included Within The Test:

• additional consonant digraphs (ph, wh)
• less frequent and consistent vowel digraphs, including split digraphs (a-e, ai, au, aw, ay, ea, e-e, er, ew, i-e, ie, ir, oa, o-e, ou, ow, oy, ue, u-e, ur)
• trigraphs (air, igh)
• alternative pronunciations (a, c, ch, e, ea, er, g, I, ie, o, oo, ou, ow, s, u, ue, u-e)