Assessment Update 2021

Phonics Screening:

The phonics screening check will take place in June. We already have detailed assessments of your child's phonics ability so this will not tell us anything new but is a check to ensure that your child is working at a nationally agreed age appropriate standard.

Below we would like to outline what the check is, how it will take place and what you can do to support your child with the check.

Children in England will take a phonics-based screen during the second half of the summer term. The phonics screening check is a quick and easy check of your child’s phonics knowledge. It helps each school confirm whether your child has made the expected progress.

Your child will sit with a teacher he or she knows and be asked to read 40 words aloud. Your child may have read some of the words before, while others will be completely new. The check is expected to take just a few minutes to complete and there is no time limit. If your child is struggling, the teacher will stop the check. The screen will include no more than 40 ‘words’. It will be divided into two sections:

The first section will include the easier letter sounds – single letter sounds such as ‘s’ or ‘a’

The second section will contain more difficult sounds – letter sounds made up of more than one letter such as ‘ch’, ‘ar’, ‘ou’, ‘er’, ‘ay’ or ‘air’ etc… We call them ‘special friends’.

The check will contain a mix of real words and made up or ‘alien words’. Your child will be told before the check that there will be words that he or she will not have seen before.

Children cannot read the ‘alien words’ by using their memory or vocabulary; they have to use their decoding skills.

For more information about how we teach phonics in school please take some time to look at our recorded phonics powerpoint on our website.

Reading everyday, little and often is key. It is really important that when you support your child with their reading that you and your child pronounce the sounds accurately to ensure words are read and pronounced carefully.

Please click on the links below to hear children pronounce sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q

At Cheadle Catholic Infant School we follow the Read Write Inc scheme for teaching phonics. The children are very familiar with it and their home reading books are linked to the texts they are reading in school. It is important that they know the ‘special friends’ and can identify them in a word.

Once your child is fairly confident with the letter sounds, you can try playing word games. Create simple words including ‘alien words’. Ask your child to make the word ‘cat’ into the word ‘mat’ or the word ‘high’ into ‘fright.’

https://youtu.be/LbKGLJPp6ww

Year 2 SATS

In May this year, all Year 2 children will be taking the national curriculum tests, also known as SATs. All Year 2 children are required to take tests in Reading & Maths, a total of 4 tests. They will also complete assessments in Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation. There is no test-based assessment of writing as part of the KS1 tests; this will be done through teacher assessment only.

Teacher assessment is used to report your child’s attainment and progress. Teachers will use the Key Stage 1 test results to help them reach an overall judgement of the standards children have reached in reading, writing and mathematics. You will also receive a teacher assessment judgement for science, but there is no science test. These assessments will be reported to you in your child’s end of year report.

We wish to reassure you that the children are not aware they are being tested. The tests are part of our ongoing assessments and will be built into lessons.