Whilst the timing of this blog was prompted by the start of the new academic year in Australia, the guidance will be useful to teachers using a Phonics Screening Check anywhere around the world. In fact, we shared a VERY similar post back in September for the start of the academic year in the UK.
Welcome to the start of another new academic year! For those of you who will be taking a Phonics Screening Check (PSC) with your class this year, it may still feel some way off. However, let us share some top tips for a strong start to the year to ensure that your journey to the PSC is a success.
As a Year One teacher, it might feel like all eyes are on you when it comes to the PSC, but we’d like to make clear that PSC success is a real team effort and to highlight how different people play key roles in this journey.
Foundation/Prep/Kindergarten Teacher |
Year 1 teacher |
Phonics Lead |
Foundation/Prep/Kindergarten Teacher:
In the first year of formal schooling, it is vital that systems and routines are established quickly to ensure that your phonics lessons can get off to a strong start and run smoothly for the rest of the year. Investing the time now to teach your students things like handing out whiteboards, drawing 3 little lines to write on, pointing at the sounds, everyone joining in to say the sounds, everyone looking and listening when they should be etc. will be well worth it.
We know that it takes time to build up to a full phonics lesson, and at first your lesson may only be a few minutes, but you should be able to build up to a full 30 minute lesson by the end of Unit 1. Read our guidance on getting started in Foundation (available to Sounds-Write trained practitioners only), if you haven’t done so already.
Year 1 Teacher
Whether you have taught Y1 before or are new to Y1, take the time to familiarise yourself with our PSC guidance materials now.
Head over to the Practitioners’ Portal where you’ll find:
- guidance on the scope and sequence and how it fits with the expectations of the PSC
- a suite of adapted PSC tests that have been designed to be carried out throughout Y1 to support your formative assessment – the first one can be used after a few weeks of term so don’t delay checking those out!
Remember to start Year 1 with a recap of the Initial Code – the students have been off school for a long time and will need a chance to refresh their skills and knowledge before pressing on with the Extended Code.
Phonics Lead
If you are leading phonics, you will need to have all of the above and more in mind when you are monitoring this term. When we say monitoring, we do not mean formal lesson observations, but your ongoing support and coaching of staff. Make sure that you are knowledgeable about the scope and sequence for the Initial Code and Extended Code, and are confident about the pace at which classes should be progressing through it.
Remember that the scope and sequence is cumulative, so classes should be progressing through it at the recommended pace. You’ll need to identify students who require additional phonics input early and ensure that the ‘keep up’ and ‘catch up’ interventions are scheduled outside of phonics lessons and are run by a trained practitioner.
As phonics lead, you will need to support your team in ensuring all students are taught with a suitable level of challenge – are you familiar with the scaffolding techniques we recommend to provide additional support or challenge within the whole class lesson? Finally, have you seen and are you planning to use our new progress checks? These will support your ongoing formative assessment and will ensure that there are no surprises when it comes to the PSC. We have produced progress checks in a range of fonts to suit your state so, if you haven’t found them already, head over to our practitioner portal now!
>> If you’d like to know more about any of these topics, register your interest for our Phonics Lead Masterclass. >>
Further reading
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