Individual · about 20 minutes · teacher record form
Phonics Exit Assessment
After the whole of Alpha-Phonics · modelled on the CORE Phonics Survey · the child reads from the SLIDES, you write on this
ChildGradeDateGiven by
How to run it. Sit beside the child, not opposite. Put the slides on the screen and this form on your lap. Say: “I am going to show you some letters and words to read. Some of the words are not real words — that is on purpose. Just do your best.” Then say nothing else. Do not sound anything out, do not nod, and do not correct.
Tick what is right. When something is wrong, write what the child actually said above it — bat for pat and bit for pat are different findings and you will not remember which by Friday.
Stop rule. Stop a section after four wrong in a row. Stop the assessment after two whole sections at or below half. Pushing a child through six more sections they cannot read tells you nothing you did not already know at section three, and they will remember it.
1 · Letter names — “what letter is this?”
| a ☐ | b ☐ | c ☐ | d ☐ | e ☐ | f ☐ | g ☐ | h ☐ | i ☐ | j ☐ | k ☐ | l ☐ | m ☐ |
| n ☐ | o ☐ | p ☐ | q ☐ | r ☐ | s ☐ | t ☐ | u ☐ | v ☐ | w ☐ | x ☐ | y ☐ | z ☐ |
2 · Letter sounds — “what sound does it make?”
| short a• ☐ | m ☐ | n ☐ | s ☐ | t• ☐ | h ☐ | d• ☐ |
| w• ☐ | l ☐ | b ☐ | k ☐ | g• ☐ | f ☐ | j ☐ |
| p• ☐ | r• ☐ | v• ☐ | y ☐ | z• ☐ | short e• ☐ | short i• ☐ |
| short o• ☐ | short u• ☐ | th (thin)• ☐ | th (this)• ☐ | sh ☐ | ch• ☐ | aw• ☐ |
| ng• ☐ | er• ☐ | long a• ☐ | a as in car ☐ | long e ☐ | long i ☐ | long o• ☐ |
| oo (food) ☐ | oo (book)• ☐ | ow ☐ | oi• ☐ | long u ☐ | s in 'measure'• ☐ |
A red dot marks a sound missing from at least one home language in this building. If the child struggles there, look at those first — for them it was never a reminder, it was a new physical skill.
3 · Decoding — real words and pseudowords, by feature
| Feature | Lessons | Real words | Score | Pseudowords | Score |
|---|
| Short vowels in CVC words | L15–28 | bad bed beck beg bib | ___/5 | jad ded kag feg dat | ___/5 |
| Consonant digraphs sh, ch, th, and -tch | L21–32, 53 | that than ash mesh chap | ___/5 | dath deth bith jash besh | ___/5 |
| Consonant blends | L43–71 | bled bluff plan pluck stab | ___/5 | blef blud blaf blod blib | ___/5 |
| Long vowels with silent e | L73–115 | ace babe dice hide robe | ___/5 | dabe bace kade bafe bage | ___/5 |
| Vowel teams | L75–105 | aid laid bee deed dream | ___/5 | baid lail baim kain hee | ___/5 |
| Diphthongs and oo | L109–114 | good food cow ouch boy | ___/5 | dood doo foom foon boop | ___/5 |
| R-controlled vowels | L85, 118 | car father ear her | ___/4 | har dather darm farn barp | ___/5 |
| Low-frequency and silent-letter spellings | L120–128 | phone phantom knee knit lamb | ___/5 | — | — |
| Multisyllabic words | L38, 57, 82 | zigzag ticket contest sandwich plane | ___/5 | — | — |
Read the two score columns ACROSS, not down. That comparison is the whole reason this form is shaped like this.
· Both strong — the feature is secure.
· Real strong, pseudo weak — the child is reading those words from memory, not decoding them. They will stall the moment a word is unfamiliar. Go back to the column drill on those lessons.
· Both weak — the feature was never learned. Re-teach it, starting at the mouth if it is a sound.
· Pseudo strong, real weak — rare, and usually means the child is decoding carefully but has no fluency yet. More reading, not more phonics.
4 · Spelling — you say it, they write it
bad that bled ace aid good car phone zigzag
The only section that runs sound → print. Mark the SOUNDS, not the spelling choice: kat for cat has every sound right and needs completely different teaching from cot.
What happens on Monday
☐ Nothing to re-teach · ready for the next thing
☐ Re-teach lessons: _________________________________
☐ Sounds to rebuild at the mouth: ______________________
☐ Reading real words from memory · column drill daily from lesson ______
☐ Refer for a speech and language opinion