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| New phonics test failed by four out of 10 pupils | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Fewer than six out of 10 pupils, 58%, passed the controversial new national phonics reading test in England, official statistics show. | Fewer than six out of 10 pupils, 58%, passed the controversial new national phonics reading test in England, official statistics show. |
| The test checks children's ability to read aloud a mixture of 40 real and made-up words, sounding them out using the phonics system. | The test checks children's ability to read aloud a mixture of 40 real and made-up words, sounding them out using the phonics system. |
| Ministers said the check had identified pupils who needed further help in learning to read. | Ministers said the check had identified pupils who needed further help in learning to read. |
| But teaching unions say it risks doing long term damage to children's reading. | But teaching unions say it risks doing long term damage to children's reading. |
| This is because it tests children's ability to decode words using a single method, phonics, rather than their ability to read itself. | This is because it tests children's ability to decode words using a single method, phonics, rather than their ability to read itself. |
| 'Waste of money' | |
| Some teachers have said bright pupils who use different methods of reading are trying to read the made-up words as real ones and being marked down for it. | |
| The phonics test is now taken by all pupils in Year 1 in English primary schools. The government introduced it to ensure schools were identifying pupils struggling with reading. | |
| Education And Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss said: "The reading check helps teachers identify those pupils who need extra help in learning to read. | |
| "Many thousands of children will now receive the extra support they need to develop a love of reading." | |
| But Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "Phonics tests waste time and money telling teachers what they already know about children's reading ability, as our joint survey with the NAHT [National Association of Head Teachers] and NUT [National Union of Teachers] showed. | |
| "If the government persists with phonics checks and its mistaken determination to make synthetic phonics the only method used to teach children to read, it risks doing long-term damage to children's reading." | |
| The official results show some 62% of girls passed the test compared with 54% of boys. | |
| But only 44% of disadvantaged pupils, those eligible for free school meals, met the required standard of phonic decoding. This was 17 percentage points lower than all other pupils. |