Read on for our favourite tips and tools to prep for the PSC in school this year:

If you’ve gone through the PSC process before, you’ll know that all pseudo-words in the check are accompanied by a picture of an imaginary creature. This provides a context for children to ensure that they are not trying to match the pseudo-word to a word in their vocabulary. In Bug Club Phonics, we’ve extended this to all our pseudo-word resources, using colourful pictures of aliens to do the trick not only on the relevant word cards but our digital assessments.

Embrace the imaginary landscape with your learners even further by making these creatures a bright and eye-catching feature in your classroom – some pupils might even wish to invent new creatures themselves. You’ll catch their attention, fire up their imaginations, and create strongly positive associations with reading.

Does all your phonics preparation need to be done in lessons, at desks and on seats? We don’t think so! Try leaving word cards and prompts in places where children play or have time to wait, helping them top up their learning and practise in short and effortless bursts. Teachers tell us our Bug Club Phonics Grapheme Cards are ideal for this. Keep a set by the classroom door for instance, and children will have easy access to a quick revision session while they are lining up before break time. 

Technology can be a great way to support and motivate pupils. Look for functions such as  “read to me” options and “sound buttons” which are especially great tools for learners who have dyslexia or otherwise struggle.

Where possible, and in partnership with parents, we recommend offering eBooks to be allocated to children who need help for example with blending practise. At home, with parents can be a great opportunity to consolidate this skill. Bug Club offers over 180 fun, diverse and fully decodable books for you and your students to choose from. 

When it comes to considering edtech, certain digital assessment games can also help teachers ease their stress and workload for the PSC by marking and tracking progress, and quickly pinpointing areas for intervention. Bug Club Phonics digital assessment games even allow teachers to select real or pseudo-words, with each one providing a basic level and a challenge level to test simple and more complex words respectively.

Checks can be carried out on a whiteboard for an informal assessment of a group or on laptops or on iPads with individual children for more precise 1:1 assessments. 

As momentum increases towards the PSC, build excitement amongst your pupils too! Bright, colourful and engaging teaching resources will help hold their attention, whilst sparking a love of language through positive reinforcement that recognises progress – particularly for learners who might be struggling.

Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programmes (SSP) such as Bug Club Phonics have been proven to be the most effective way to teach children to read, and are particularly effective for the lowest attaining 20% of learners.^[1] Celebrating this success will help all of your young readers’ confidence to blossom.

Did you know that if you’re part of a state-funded infant school, primary school, junior school, special school or pupil referral unit working with primary-aged children, you could be eligible for up to £9,000 of extra funding and phonics support by applying before June? This could provide access to an abundance of brilliant resources and specialist support, including how-to-guides and videos, ‘live action’ phonics lesson videos and notes, customisable PD units, parent material, a supportive Facebook community of over 550 Bug Club Phonics teachers and a friendly customer support team for all your learners’ phonics needs.

Interested?

^{[1] https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics}