Year 1 phonics screening checks will be carried out in schools from 18th June 2012 for one week.

Many parents are keen to understand what the checks are about and how they will be carried out – you can find a quick Year 1 phonics screening check who, what, why, where and when here on our website.

Find out about the Year 1 phonics screening check at www.bettertuition.co.uk

The checks have generated a fair amount of debate, especially among teachers and parents who believe that children already undergo too much formal assessment.  We precised this on our blog earlier in the year – read the post here.

The Year 1 phonics screening checks became controversial earlier in the year when it was revealed that two thirds of children screened in the pilot failed to meet the government’s required standard – link to BBC article here.  Many experts felt that children were being set up to fail with a test that was too difficult for most of them.

The Department for Education explained this by claiming teachers were unfamiliar with the screening checks prior to the pilot:

“When considering the outcomes of the pilot, it should be noted that pilot schools were only given details of the content and structure of the screening check shortly before the check took place. Pilot schools were therefore not familiar with the screening check when planning their teaching and learning, and so the pilot results might not be a good predictor of national performance.”

Link to Department for Education FAQ here.

Nevertheless, the DfE has also admitted that, “Setting a more rigorous standard in the phonics check…will help schools to ensure their pupils are secure at level 2 by the end of KS1.”  In other words, the Department for Education believes that the existence of a screening check with a (thus far) two thirds failure rate will force schools to drive up standards – a highly controversial statement.

We don’t offer tuition for the Year 1 phonics screening check at the Better Tuition Centre in Urmston: we take the view that phonics is only one aspect of learning to read and should never be taught in isolation.  Furthermore, Year 1 is rather young for tuition (though we do, on occasion, tutor Year 1 students who have fallen behind).

Our advice to parents is to take the Year 1 phonics screening check as it comes and to remember that children develop as readers at different ages.  In other words, don’t panic if your child doesn’t meet the ‘required’ standard.  If you are worried and you would like a more thorough – free – assessment, you can call Better Tuition on 0161 748 3912 and arrange this.

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