Parents of Year 2 children will soon be hearing from school about the phonic screening check their children should have taken last June when in Year 1. This is a check that teachers will make to show how well children can use phonic skills and to identify children who need extra help.Cancellation of the phonics screening check in June 2020 means incoming Year 2 pupils did not take the check in Year 1. In the 2020/21 academic year only, it is statutory for schools to administer a past version of the phonics screening check to Year 2 pupils during the second half of the 2020 autumn term and return results to the LA.Year 2 pupils who meet the expected standard in phonics in the autumn check will not be required to complete any further statutory assessments in phonics. Year 2 pupils who do not meet the expected standard in the autumn check will be expected to take the statutory check again in June 2021, alongside Year 1 pupils.The check is designed to only take a few minutes (anything from 4 to 10 minutes) and consists of 40 words that children will be asked to read. Some of these words will be non-words, or nonsense words made up of a collection of letters that follow specific phonic rules. In this way it can be guaranteed that children are being asked to read some words that they have never come across before. The paper the children have to read from is bright and cheerful and nothing to worry about. In fact, if your child does not do so well, it is important that they get access to the available extra teaching help.We have just published past Phonic Screening Papers, free to view and print, which include:Practice sheetsChildren’s materialsAnswer sheetsScoring guidanceIf you are at all concerned about your child’s progress in reading then these are well worth looking at, but it should be emphasised the materials are there so that teachers and children can become familiar with the phonics screening check and that they are not intended to be used for coaching. Coaching your child just to get correct answers in the test could do more harm than good as it might stop them from being recognised as needing extra help with phonics generally.Go to Year 1 Phonics Screening Test materials.Try our Lower Primary Spelling and Phonics worksheets