Phonics Screening Check

Phonics Screening Check 2021-22 – Important information and dates

What is the Phonics Screening Check?

Children complete a word-reading check at the end of Year 1 so that parents can be confident their children are being taught to read successfully.

Children read 40 words. It takes between two and five minutes.

If they do not manage to read 32 of the words, they are given extra support, and repeat the check at the end of Year 2.

The ‘pass’ mark of 32 is subject to change by the government and schools will be notified sometime in June of this figure.

All children at Easington Church of England Primary Academy will be supported to learn phonics using the RWInc phonics program.

In Autumn 2021 all eligible Year 2 pupils will take the Phonics Screening Check. The Government set out the following guidelines.

Cancellation of the phonics screening check in June 2021 means incoming Year 2 pupils did not take the check in year 1. In the 2021 to 2022 academic year, it is statutory for schools to administer a past version of the phonics screening check to Year 2 pupils during the second half of the 2021 Autumn Term and return results to their local authority.

The Autumn check is intended to ensure that Year 2 pupils who need support in learning to decode using phonics are not missed.

The Autumn check is designed to be as flexible as possible, whilst also minimising any burden that could have arisen from the existing requirement, which would have required all Year 1 and 2 pupils to be assessed concurrently in a short window in the Summer term.

Year 2 pupils who meet the expected standard in phonics in the 2021 Autumn check will not be required to complete any further statutory assessments in phonics. Year 2 pupils who do not meet the expected standard in the 2021 Autumn check will be expected to take the statutory check in June 2022, alongside Year 1 pupils.

Year 3 pupils, who were due to take the statutory check in June 2021 (when they were in year 2), are not required to take the Autumn check. However, at Easington Church of England Primary Academy we shall be administering the check to these pupils so we can monitoring their progress and ensure they are reaching expected levels of attainment in reading.

Year 1 will take the Phonics Screening check during the Summer term, June 2022.

Details of our Phonics Screening Check can be downloaded as a Powerpoint presentation (produced in 2020) by clicking the link below, which provided some useful information for parents/carers.

Phonics Screening Check