From a pass rate below the national average in 2012, to a brilliant 90%+ pass rate in 2013, and an incredible 100% pass rate in 2014, I know my three-step process for improving test results my phonic detection check actually works.

With less than four months to go until the phonics screening, I will be preparing my children for the phonics screening as I have done for the past two years. My strategy is simple, I make sure they know, and I mean REALLY know, all the sounds from phases 3 and 5 (Letters and Sounds 2007) included in the test. This means not only teaching them, but giving them the opportunity to incorporate those sounds so that when they see them in words, they automatically say them. I do it in 3 ways:

Phonics Test Prep = Fun…Honest!

All of this may sound a bit dry and uninspiring, but it’s not. Kids love resources and I make it as fun as possible by creating new games to play with them.

Just before the middle of the quarter we had our OFSTED inspection. The inspector went directly to the KS1 phonetics teaching on the first morning of the first day. How happy I was when I pulled out my pseudo word cards and the kids literally cheered and said: ‘Yes, alien words!’

And that’s where the real point comes in, yes, we are required to comply with tests like the phonic detection check, but really we are here to teach our children, and reading is a fundamental skill. I personally want to engage with children and teach them in a fun, rewarding and successful way.

1. When I introduce children to a new sound, I give them the corresponding sound card with the grapheme on the front and a key word and picture on the back. This is added to your sound card pack which is kept in your backpacks. They practice these sounds regularly at home and at school. they love to play snap with them in small groups.
2. We regularly practice reading non-words. These are a real test of whether children can detect the sounds in words. As in the phonics assessment, I do not use ‘sound buttons’ or any other prompts to show children which letters go together to make a sound in a word. I choose the cards that use the sounds that the children have already been taught and systematically develop their matching skills. One of my friends who teaches Year 1 said that actually more than 50% of the words on the Phonics Screening Check are pseudo words to children, because there are always a number of real words on the test that they don’t know or recognise. – could well be pseudowords.
3. I use phonetically decodable books in our reading scheme, so children regularly practice recognizing and using the sounds we have learned in their reading.