International schools: take the Y1 phonics check voluntarily

[debbie]

Wherever I train or meet teachers in the independent sector or from overseas, I encourage them to consider undertaking the Year One Phonics Screening Check 'voluntarily'.

This is to see how their teaching effectiveness and the children's results compare with the children in Year One in England for whom the check is statutory.

One would hope that any teacher teaching something so important as literacy basic skills in English should have the professional curiosity to want to know how well they are doing!

Here in England, there are some vociferous critics of the advent and content of the Year One Phonics Screening Check. I believe their criticism is unfounded or often based on lack of full knowledge about phonics and the need for objective testing in important aspects of education.

Wouldn't it be so ironic if there was a groundswell of interest in the independent schools and schools internationally in using the words of the Year One Phonics Screening Check for their own assessment!

Please, if you have any interest in this issue or suggestion, note your interest on this thread, (or if you use the 40 words already which are made public after the assessment deadline) or email me at:

debbie@phonicsinternational.com

[debbie]

http://www.nonweiler.demon.co.uk/Y1_Phonics_Check.pdf

Elizabeth Nonweiler's PowerPoint provides some information about the Year One Phonics Screening Check and addresses some of the issues and misunderstandings.

[debbie]

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/for ... .php?t=289

This is the link to another thread all about the Year One Phonics Screening Check in England for those people who are considering using the 40 words in their settings.

It includes the relevenat links to the Department for Education webpages on phonics and the screening check information.

[debbie]

Fantastic news - I have now been sent a set of results from a synthetic phonics school in South America where teachers have been developing their expertise using Jolly Phonics, Phonics International, Floppy's Phonics and their own in-house synthetic phonics resources for several years.

The teachers at the school have assessed their six year olds using the pilot words of the English Year One Phonics Screening Check. Well done to one and all. The children concerned speak Spanish as their mother tongue and English is a second language - often a new language to them.

We shall shortly upload the results to share with other schools -and really encourage teachers across the world to try out the Year One Phonics Screening Check.

We aim to provide this school with a webpage where teachers can describe their synthetic phonics journey to encourage other schools to get started with synthetic phonics teaching. At the moment we are gathering their story in pdf format and plan to include photos and video clips.

I would encourage other schools to share their journeys in this way. Following our recent two-day training event in Newbury, teachers from a school in Spain expressed an interest in sending information about their journey too.

I am aware of the developments in South America and Spain - largely thanks to the Jolly Phonics team and the pioneering work in particular of Grace Vilar (based in South America) and Coral George (based in Spain) - and subsequent developments with our training events for Phonics International and the Oxford Reading Tree Floppy's Phonics Sounds and Letters programmes in Spain and South America.

I am encouraging Grace and Coral to document their own journeys and the scale of their synthetic phonics teacher-training in many countries of the world.

We need to build on our international community by sharing the achievement thus far - and there are many achievements to describe and share.

I welcome anyone sending me diary-reports and results to share with our international community.

[debbie]

Dear Debbie,



...We know you are keen on knowing how Phonics is developing in other parts of the world and we love to be a minute part of this.

So we have prepared a domestic report of the results of our Phonics Screening Check, there you will see a picture of a student and I in action and another with V____.

I had prepared a diorama to give some context to the non-sense words, the aliens were called Strappy and Rusty and had to look for some items to take back home to their own planet...so we added context and purpose to the check.

if you have any doubt about any info please write me back and I'll gladly answer any questions.


Stay in touch!

When I get chance to provide these results in a publishable format, I will put them on the internet to show the amazing work going on in this school!

The work-ethic of the ladies and their colleagues (and pupils) in this school, and the sharing of their information to further international uptake of phonics, is outstanding and inspirational!

The results and their analysis of the results are amazing too!

[debbie]

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/for ... .php?t=424

Follow this link to reach the FREE official Year One Phonics Screening Check which was used in England in June 2013.

Do be curious as to what results your children can achieve!