Olive Schools Secure Outstanding Results in Phonics Screening Check

The Trust’s primary schools have achieved exceptional results in the 2016 Phonics Screening Check, echoing last year’s success.

The Olive School, Blackburn secured a 100% pass rate in this year’s assessment, placing the school amongst the top 3% in the country. The Olive School, Hackney also celebrated excellent results, achieving a pass rate of 97% and ranking amongst the top 8% of schools nationally. The schools’ results vastly exceeded the national average for 2016, where just over 80% of children met expected standards.

Phonic decoding is one of the most widely-recognised and successful approaches to teaching young children how to read. The Phonics Screening Check is a short assessment of pupils’ phonics skills at the end of Year 1.

Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for School Standards, wrote to both schools to congratulate them on their achievements, noting that they were making impressive inroads in a vital area of children’s education and paving the way for pupils’ success in Key Stage 1 English examinations.

(Mufti) Hamid Patel, CBE, Chief Executive of Star Academies, also extended his congratulations to the schools, saying: “It is wonderful to see that such a high percentage of our pupils are meeting – and, in many cases, exceeding – expected standards in the Phonics Screening Check. We believe that it is crucial for our pupils to secure the basics from a young age, but we are also keen to ensure that they regard reading as an enjoyable and enriching activity. These results show that our primary schools are successfully putting into place the building blocks that allow pupils to rapidly develop their reading skills, and we hope all of our pupils go on to develop a genuine passion for reading.

Congratulations to staff and Year 1 pupils at both schools for all of their hard work. I would also like to say a big “thank you” to our parents, who I know invest a lot of time in reading with their children at home.”

Added By: Star Academies | Date Added: 3rd Nov 2016 | Posted In: Latest News