Tasmania: Fantastic news of a 'Phonics Testing Pilot' for 2020

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Tasmania: Fantastic news of a 'Phonics Testing Pilot' for 2020

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This news from Tasmania of a 'Phonics Testing Pilot' is a fantastic development!

http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/releases/ ... FjDqSGESdY
17 December 2019

Jeremy Rockliff, Minister for Education and Training

Phonics Testing Pilot

A total of 20 Tasmanian Government Schools will take part in a phonics testing pilot next year as part of the Hodgman majority Liberal Government’s commitment to lifting educational outcomes.

The National Year 1 Phonics Screen Test pilot is a short, simple assessment that tells teachers how students are progressing in phonics, which is an essential skill for learning to read and write.

The pilot will determine the future implementation of the program in in 2021, with pre and post assessments carried out in 2020 to determine its success.

We recognise literacy is an area of upmost importance for all Tasmanians, which is why we are continuing to build knowledge and practices in this space with a number of initiative already underway.

This includes Launching into Learning, Learning in Families Together (LIFT), which will now be extended to a further 29 schools, and our commitment to provide access to a literacy coach to every school.

Earlier this year, we also launched our Literacy Framework 2019 -2022, which outlines how we will support all learners to develop the skills and confidence to succeed in literacy over the next four years.
As followers of the International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction know, IFERI has always recommended the universal uptake of a simple word-level phonics screening assessment. This could be the same phonics check used and published for free availability by the Department for Education in England - or a similar check.

The more 'similar' the phonics check adopted in different English-speaking countries (to England's check), the more the results can be professionally reflected upon relative to findings in England where the implementation of research-informed systematic synthetic phonics (no multi-cueing word-guessing) in a language and literature rich environment is taken very seriously and embedded in law.

Congratulations to everyone concerned with this very important development in England!
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