Phonics Screening Test Results

This is one of the most common question I get asked by parents.

The initial answer is that there isn’t technically a “pass” score, but there is a benchmark score. (I know it’s a semantic argument but Sir Jim Rose, a Government advisor is quoted as saying that “the phonics screening check would give leverage to parents and help them get help if their children were below the minimum standard” )

Ideally it is seen as a diagnostic test of phonetic decoding and allows schools and teachers to make decisions about your child’s reading.

The draft 2012 Technical report has appeared in the government files recently (and took a huge amount of finding) which gives us more detail.

The benchmark score was……

32 out of 40.

The graph below from the draft report shows the breakdown percentages of each individual score.

Breakdown of 2012 Phonics Screening Test Scores

As a mathematician there are a few interesting comments relating to the above (but that’s for a new article!)

However the most important comment for a parent is that 58% of all year 1 students “achieved the expected standard or higher”

In a subsequent post I will add more detail to what is tested, a handy guide, some sample words to practice and the real words from the 2012 test.