School News:
Year 2 Phonics Results
Dear parents and carers,
Firstly and most importantly, I hope that you and your families are safe and well.
As you know, before Christmas the children in Year 2 undertook the Phonics Screening Check.
We have invested a great deal of money and time into trying to make our phonics and early reading provision as
effective as possible. Miss Martin has worked tirelessly to ensure that we give the children the best possible start in
their early reading journey. I point out that this has been made even more challenging given the restrictions placed
upon schools due to the current global pandemic.
Therefore, I am delighted to report that the children did fantastically well in their phonics screening. In fact, 100% of
the children passed their phonics test. To put this in perspective, the national average the previous year was 82%. The
average score of the Year 2 class was 38.2 out of 40! A massive thank you to Miss Palmer who has worked endlessly
on ensuring that the children were given all the help and guidance that they needed to maximise their phonics learning.
Not to mention Mrs Tumelty who has also supported the children throughout.
However, none of this is possible without all your support at home. The changes we have made to the way we have
delivered reading have certainly paid off. This is down to the way in which we have all worked together both at home
and at school. The children have had one individual reading book a week which they have been expected to read three
times minimum. This book has been closely linked to their developing phonics knowledge. In addition to this, each
week they have had a shared reading for pleasure book. We have also focused upon online learning in the autumn
term. The children have had access to Rising Stars Reading Planet and Reading plus for those taking off with their
reading in Year 2.
Thank you for all your support at home, working with the children helping them practise their phonics sounds and
reading. It has been wonderful to hear such positive feedback about the way we are delivering reading in school. Thank
you also for all the words of support communicated through Class Dojo and in person on the schoolyard, phone or
email these last few months. I know Class Dojo has certainly given both parents and class teachers another clearer
means of communication. I speak for Miss Palmer and all the staff when I say that without the strong, robust
communication that has occurred in all areas, the children would not have been able to achieve such incredible results.
Once again, thank you as always for your continued support.
Take care everyone.
