Phonics Screening

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The children in Year 1 follow Litlle Wandle and Collins Big Cat Phonics books to develop their phonic knowledge.

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The checks consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or nonsense words, or pseudo words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonics rules your child has been taught, but don’t mean anything – your child will need to read these with the correct sounds to show that they understand the phonics rules behind them.

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The 40 words and non-words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters. The teacher administering the check with your child will give them a few practice words to read first – including some non-words – so they understand more about what they have to do. Each of the non-words is presented with a picture of a monster / alien, as if the word were their name (and so your child doesn't think the word is a mistake because it doesn't make sense!).

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DFE - Learning to read through phonics

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Reception Baseline

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The Reception Baseline takes place during the first six weeks of your child's reception year. 

The focus of the RBA will be on communication, language and literacy, and maths. It will take around 20 minutes.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has been chosen as the preferred supplier to design and deliver the RAB and will be running the trial and pilot phases of the assessment and the first two years of its implementation in primary schools.

The RBA data will be used to judge how much progress children have made by the end of KS2 (Year 6 SATs). There will be no "pass" or "fail" or numerical score, and the results of the RBA will not be used to track individual pupils or to judge schools' Foundation Stage performance.