Almost half of seven and eight-year-olds who had twice failed the phonics check did not meet the standard on a third retake, according to the results of a Department for Education pilot project published today.

And more than a third of teachers (37 per cent) said that repeating the test again at the end of Year 3 - two years after it was first taken - had no positive impact on their teaching of phonics.

The phonics check is taken by all children at the end of Year 1 and can be retaken at the end of Year 2. Children must read 40 words, including 20 non-words, and get 32 correct to pass the test.

This year, 81 per cent of pupils met the expected standard at the end of Year 1 (aged 6) and by the end of Year 2, this proportion had increased to 91 per cent.

In the pilot project, 51 per cent of 1,635 pupils who had not met the standard by the end of Year 2 passed the check in Year 3.

Non-English speakers ‘do better’

The project also found that 59 per cent of pupils who had English as an additional language passed, compared with 48 per cent of native English speakers.

And 39 per cent of pupils with special educational needs met the standard on this second retake.

The Standards and Testing Agency, which oversees the phonics check, asked the National Foundation for Educational Research to carry out the pilot project.

The researchers also asked teachers in 212 schools taking part in the pilot about the phonics check.

They found that 97 schools which responded said they had made no changes to phonics teaching in anticipation of the Year 3 pilot. But 75 had increased the amount of one-to-one tuition and small-group teaching and 42 had increased the amount of time spent on phonics teaching.

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