Tamworth principals credit improvement in reading and writing results to phonics screening

Following a successful trial in 2020, the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check was made mandatory for all public school students in 2021.

Oxley Vale Public School principal Luke Norman said phonics - letter-sound combinations, which involves sounding out words, should continue to be the focus going forward.

"It's early days, but all early signs are positive," he said.

"It's far more structured, systematic and consistent and we're pretty sure that we're getting a bit of movement with it."

He backed the Department of Education's decision to make it compulsory, but said it should be part of a "well balanced literacy approach".

"It's not the only key to success, but having it now implemented and taught across the state is the right way to go and is a really good move," he said.

The NSW Department of Education says analysis of the Phonics Screening check data has revealed that 57 per cent of Year 1 students are meeting or exceeding the expected target, up from 43 per cent when the check was trialled in 2020.

In 2021, the check was completed by more than 66,000 Year 1 students across 1,615 schools.

But local principals concede, while that statistic is improving, it's still lower than where it needs to be.

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Tintinhull Public School principal Andrew Rogers said he expects literacy results to continue to improve.

"The new K-2 syllabus is just coming out and it has a very strong emphasis on the science of reading which is the teaching of phonics," he said.

"So I think there's more and more training out there for teachers and more understanding about this program."

He said the Tintinhull school adopted a synthetic phonics program two years before it was made compulsory by the department, because they had already identified its benefits.

"I think as a principal and an educator, this is the way forward," he said.

"Since we started teaching the program it has improved our results, especially in reading and writing, and in all areas of literacy.

"Our kids do read very well and attribute that to the teaching they received in synthetics phonics in their early years of school."

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is completed in Term 3 each year and includes 40 words, which consists of 20 real words and 20 pseudo words.

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