The impact of the use of the phonics screening check in Year 2

Alice Bradbury and Dominic Wyse, Helen Hamlyn Centre For Pedagogy (0–11years) (HHCP), UCL Institute of Education, UK In this paper we report some key findings from a new research study exploring the impact of the use of the phonics screening check (PSC) in Year 2. As part of the government’s arrangements for examinations and testing under COVID in 2020, England’s PSC was implemented with all Year 2 children (aged six to seven) for the first time. In June 2020, the UK government announced that the PSC would be moved to the autumn term, and made the reporting of results to the Department for Education a statutory requirement (STA, 2020). A Department for Education spokesperson explained that (Gibbons, 2020): ‘Pupils who may need support should not be overlooked as a result of missing their phonics check.’ The PSC had, since its introduction, been used with Year 1 children in the summer term and in the summer term of Year 2 for children who did not reach the threshold mark