Dear Parents/Carers

Please do not be alarmed by the Year 1 Phonics Tests. This school gained a 55% pass rate on it and a lot of our children were
only a few marks off a pass.....However if your child did get a low result this doesnt mean that they cant and wont read.... it
means they may learn to read by a means other than phonics...
To set your minds at rest this school complained to the Government, through a survey, that they have taken away equal
opportunities for children who learn in different ways. The three main Teaching Unions have issued the following statements:
The three unions are urging the government to think again about its prescription of flawed phonics checks which will use
made-up words to check childrens reading. Or Snemp osk vap! Jound spron geck blan fape. Voo terg bim thazz, as the
Government might say.
The unions argue that these phonics checks will not let parents know how well their children are learning to read, will not
assess whether a child can understand the words they are reading, or provide the majority of teachers with any
information about childrens reading ability they did not already know. Yet every school is being forced to implement this
time-consuming test.
In addition, the use of made-up words will confuse children for whom English is a second language and those with special
educational needs, say the unions, as well as frustrating those who can read already.
Setting arbitrary benchmarks for children benefits no one and risks making the majority of six year olds feel like failures. In
the pilot study, only 32% of six year olds who took part reached the expected level. .
ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: Once again the government is totally failing to understand how children
learn. Phonics should not be the only game in town; it is just one of many equally valid and useful methods of teaching
children how to read. Phonics checks for six year olds risk doing more damage than good. The government should come
clean with parents so that they know the test results will tell them nothing about their childs reading ability or their
schools ability to teach reading.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, said: Despite claiming to empower schools, the government is imposing a
narrow test which will actually provide less information than the procedures schools are already using. Phonics is an
essential part of early literacy, but this approach risks distorting teaching and reduces freedom."
Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: Synthetic phonics is one way of teaching reading but it is not the
only one. The clear message being given by professionals to the Government is that they want the freedom to adopt
whatever method best suits their children and not be pushed down a one-size-fits-all route. That approach would most
certainly be failing our children and young people.
I hope that this puts parents/carers minds at rest. This school is by no means complacent about teaching reading we are
however realistic in the knowledge that although most children learn to read phonetically, some children will not learn to read
by sounding out, blending etc and they will learn to read by other means such as contextual, sight etc. Some of our children
dropped marks because they have progressed past segmenting and blending, they are reading sounds as whole words, by
sight just as an adult would.
Please keep up the good work at home over the Summer Holidays so that your child reads regularly and doesnt forget what
they have learn.
Kindest Regards,

Mrs J Winder