Assessment

Assessment is a fundamental part of the ACET Phonics Scheme. Upon entering Reception (or any child new to school) all children are baselined using the ACET Phonics Phase Tests. Phase tests should then be completed, one-to-one, every 6 weeks as a minimum on the relevant phase test (see assessment schedule below). These assessments allow us to establish which phase of phonics the child needs to learn, what gaps they have to fill and what book they are able to take home. 

The Phase Tests are split into the sub-phases and assesses the child’s ability to, recognise sounds, read words containing certain sounds, Tricky Words, High Frequency Words and sentences. Our phase tests also allow staff to gauge the child’s level of fluency.

In order to ensure consistency, staff are fully trained in how to complete the Phase Tests and a helpful ‘How to’ guide is supplied to support staff when completing these assessments. These assessments are then collated and monitored by the Early Reading Lead in order to determine groupings, interventions, book levels and areas of need. 

The Early Reading Lead then collates this information from assessments and tracks the progress on a matrix tracking grid. This tracking grid has the capacity to track the overall percentage of pupils working at age related or below age related, the number of children within each phase and specifically monitor the bottom 20% of pupils or specific pupil groups such as SEND, EAL or FSM.

In lesson assessment is vitally important for the progress of the children. The children are expected to sit in a “V Shape” in order to allow the teacher to be able to see all the children and support the children that require more support. The ‘Revise’ sections of the lesson (e.g. Flashcard pile, Tricky Word revise words, High Frequency revise words, revise words etc) are based on assessment of the children. Some of this will be determined from gaps in their phase tests but largely this will be down to on the spot assessment. 


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