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Learn about the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check including what it is, when it is & how to prepare for the test.
Author
Mhairi Sim
Published
May 2024
Learn about the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check including what it is, when it is & how to prepare for the test.
Author
Mhairi Sim
Published
May 2024
Learn about the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check including what it is, when it is & how to prepare for the test.
Author
Mhairi Sim
Published
May 2024
Key takeaways
Table of contents
Using phonics is a skill that many of us use regularly without even thinking about it! When we come up against a word we’re unfamiliar with, we use individual letters or groups of letters within the word to sound it out (or decode it).
That’s basically what the Phonics Screening Check is testing in our little ones! The assessment is used to check if they’ve got an age-expected understanding of this skill and if they can apply it to unfamiliar words in front of them.
The assessment is administered to students at the end of Year 1, and in some cases, the end of Year 2 instead. Read on to learn more about this assessment and how you can help prepare your learner!
This guide contains some phonics words and phrases that you might not be familiar with but our phonics key terms glossary will keep you right.
The purpose of the Phonics Screening Check is to test learners’ ability to read, decode, and sound out familiar and unfamiliar words. To do this, they’ll need to have a good grasp of their phonics!
Across the test our Year 1 pupils will be tested on their understanding of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (how written letters correspond to spoken sounds). This is an important initial skill they’ll need in order to develop their reading fluency and their spelling abilities!
After a quick practice, students will begin their Phonics Screening Check. They’ll complete two sections each with 20 words included, which will increase in difficulty as they go on. Let’s take a closer look at what phonics skills will be covered in each section.
This section will include words with simple structures (e.g. CVC, CCVC, CVCC, and VCC). Students will be tested on:
In the second half of the phonics screening test, students will decode longer and more complicated words (e.g. CCCVC, CCVCC etc), including two-syllable words. In addition to the criteria above, these words can also test students on:
Of the 40 words students will be asked to read, around 40-60% of these will be pseudowords which are fake words that are used in order to test pupils’ ability to read unfamiliar words. They might resemble real words, but they’ll be completely new to all students which helps to eliminate any bias within the assessment.
The test will be administered in a one-to-one setting where the child will be asked to read words and pseudowords from the test booklet. The teacher will then record if their pronunciation was correct or incorrect on a separate answer page.
It’s also worth noting that the test isn’t timed, but students should be able to complete it in under 10 minutes.
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The administering teacher will mark students’ responses as correct or incorrect as they complete the test. At the end, learners will receive a score out of 40 which will indicate their ability to decode phonics to the expected level.
Pupils must meet a threshold score to demonstrate that they are working at an age-appropriate level. This score has been set at 32 marks out of 40 for the last two years.
If a Year 1 student doesn’t meet the threshold score then the school will get support in place for them and they’ll be able to retake the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 2.
Year 1 students who are undertaking the Phonics Screening Check 2024 will do so at some point between the 10th and 14th of June.
If for whatever reason a learner is absent and unable to complete their phonics check during this week, schools are permitted to use the following week to catch up!
The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check identifies if learners understand different phonetic sounds and how these correspond with written letters. This ability is generally a good indicator of how well students are progressing in their reading skills.
Phonics are also a great way to learn spelling! Being able to identify different sounds by how they are written, students can then apply this as they spell. They can sound out the word, and then write out the corresponding graphemes for the phonemes they hear.
In identifying students who are struggling and are not meeting age-expected standards, schools are able to get the correct support in place to help! The key aim of this is to ensure that a higher number of children are reading competently by the end of Key Stages 1 and 2.
DoodleEnglish is the perfect study companion for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Test. Filled with thousands of reading, grammar, spelling, and punctuation exercises aligned to the national curriculum, 5 minutes of practice a day can improve reading and comprehension skills!
One of the best ways that you can prepare your kiddo for their upcoming phonics check is to read, read, and read some more! Whatever they’re reading, read with them and help them to break down tricky words into different sounds.
Fitting some reading time during your little ones’ day could look like reading a story together at bedtime, reading with the shopping list at the supermarket, or reading a menu at a restaurant.
Another super opportunity to prepare them is by asking them to spell out some words for you. Encourage your learner to sound out the word first, before they write it down. Once they’ve finished, ask them to go through the words they’ve written down and sound them out to you!
Playing games is also a brilliantly fun way for kiddos to practice their reading and phonics skills. Why not try out some of these amazing phonics games with your learner? They don’t need much prep and are perfect for a quick practice session!
If your little one loves interactive games then you could be onto a winner with our DoodleLearning English app! The app is packed with curriculum-linked games that’ll adapt to your learners’ skill level, boosting their confidence and helping them master those all-important phonics skills.
Finally, take a look at our times tables guides for more tips on how to help your learner perfect each one!
A great way to get your learner ready for their upcoming Phonics Screening Check is to let them have a go at some official phonics screening past papers. These papers will get your kiddo familiar with the exact format of the test and the look of the test paper that they’ll be reading from.
Phonics screening past papers and marking guidance are available for free to print and download – some of the most recent papers for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023 are available now.
Using a combination of the strategies we’ve covered above is sure to keep phonics fun and interesting for your little learners. Between playing phonics games, using our English app, and reading in different settings they’ll be well on their way to reading fluently without even realising it!
The Phonics Screening 2024 will take place in schools throughout the week beginning the 10th of June 2024. Schools are also able to use the following week to catch up on assessing any students who were absent the previous week.
Students will usually sit the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. In some cases, there may be children who will take the test at the end of Year 2.
Children might take the test in Year 2 if they didn’t meet the threshold at the end of Year 1 or didn’t sit the test in Year 1.
The threshold for meeting the expected standard for the Phonics Screening Check has been 32 marks out of 40 for the last two years. This can change, but historically the threshold has been set between 30 and 32 marks.
Marking guidance is published close to the time of the phonics screen check each year which will indicate the threshold mark for that year.
Lesson credits
Mhairi Sim
Mhairi is an experienced teacher, freelance writer and parent. After completing her bachelor's degree in Psychology, she graduated as a teacher from the University of Strathclyde. She then built experience teaching across KS1 and KS2 throughout the UK. In addition to working in mainstream education, Mhairi specialised in the additional support needs sector, including social, emotional, and behavioural support.
Mhairi
Mhairi is an experienced teacher, freelance writer and parent. After completing her bachelor's degree in Psychology, she graduated as a teacher from the University of Strathclyde. She then built experience teaching across KS1 and KS2 throughout the UK. In addition to working in mainstream education, Mhairi specialised in the additional support needs sector, including social, emotional, and behavioural support.
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