The government have been testing a check on the progress 6-year-olds have made with their phonic understanding.
We are in total support of the principle behind this test. The sooner that a teacher/parent team sees that a child is heading down a sight-reading path (what we call Optilexia), the easier it is to guide the child back towards reading by decoding.
The tricky thing with early reading development is that a bright optilexic can seem to be doing better than a child learning to decode. So this test will help shine a light on that sight-reading pattern.
I do have a concern about the figures on what the teachers think of the ease of use of this test. But I am sure they can improve that between now and September.
What do you think about this new phonics assessment?