Phonics Screening
Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children recognise and use different sounds - they might blend sounds together to read words or segment whole words into sounds to spell them. Your child will begin learning phonics in early years (nursery and reception) and phonics will remain a key focus throughout key stage one (years 1 and 2, when your child is aged between 5 and 7).
What is decoding?
Decoding is the process of seeing a written word and being able to read it aloud. To decode, you need to be able to see a word and identify the sounds that make up the word. For example, seeing the word ‘cat’ and saying the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/. Decoding is about being able to recognise the sounds and say the word - it does not mean the person reading the word understands its meaning.
What is segmenting?
Segmenting is the process of breaking a word down into individual sounds. This is mostly linked to spelling. For instance, we might want to spell ‘plan’ so we would segment it - /p/ /l/ /a/ /n/.
What is blending?
Blending is a key reading skill. Once the sounds in a word have been identified (for example, /c/ /a/ /t/), they must then be blended together to form a whole word (for example, ‘cat’).
What is the phonics screening check?
The phonics screening check is a statutory reading check that all year 1 children (aged 5 to 6) are expected to take during a particular week in June. Some year 2 children (aged 6 to 7) might also be checked; perhaps they didn’t achieve the expected standard in year 1 or have not taken the check before. This check is designed to see whether your child has reached the expected level in their decoding, segmenting and blending skills.
The check consists of 40 words - 20 real words and 20 pseudo-words (or alien or nonsense words). Your child will be presented with a booklet with four large words per page. The words gradually get trickier. Your child will first be shown words made up of two or three sounds, such as ‘it’ and ‘vap’, then will move onto longer words with more complex sounds, such as the split digraph a_e in ‘maze’. Some words will have a picture of an imaginary creature next to them; these are pseudo-words. The picture is provided so that your child knows the word won’t make sense - instead, it is the name of the alien. It’s also there so your child doesn’t try to turn the nonsense word into a real word.