The Phonics Screening Check

Setting up the Assessment

Adding the Template

To add the Phonics Check assessment, go to Students > Assessments > DfE Assessments > Mark Entry.

If the template has already been added, you'll see it under the academic year drop-down menu.

If it hasn't yet been added, click the green Load Assessment Template button in the top-right of the page.

Select the Phonics Screening Check, then click Load Template.

Click +Add in the Phonics Screening Check section select the right student group and date.

In the slide over, select the main year group that is doing the Phonics Screening Check. This is usually Year 1. Don't worry, you can add additional students from other years later on.

Add the assessment date, and choose whether the assessment is for students with SEN only, then click Setup Assessments.

Adding students retaking from last year (year 2) and additional students if needed

To add additional students (such as students who failed the assessment last year), click the check. 

Then select Manage Assessment. 

Click +Add in the Students section on the next page.

Select individual students or whole groups by clicking, then click Add Students.

They will then appear in the Student list and in the marksheet.

Inputting Marks

To input marks into the Phonics Screening Check, return to the DfE assessments page and again select the check. Click it and click Input Marks in the slide over.

Add in the mark to the Check Mark column on the right. Schools are not required to submit outcomes to their LA unless a student was, for example, absent when the test was administered.

Should we fill in the outcomes?

Only input a value in the left-hand column if the student did not take the test. In this case, input A, D, L or Q in the left-hand column, and leave the right-hand column blank.

Each year, the DfE announces the passing grade for the Phonics Screening Check, at which point Arbor automatically adds an Outcome for each grade.

The marksheet will be automatically updated by the end of the day (June 22nd for 2025/2026) to show Wa or Wt based on student marks. You do not need to add these in manually. 

Please note: Do not add outcomes before the marksheets have been automatically updated. This will result in the outcomes not to pull through and they will need to be entered manually.

FAQs

Why have outcomes not pulled through even though we have entered marks?

If you manually enter an outcome, before Arbor has a chance to automatically set these for you Arbor does not overwrite the data you manually entered.

Even if you entered an outcome and then removed it so that the outcome is empty, Arbor will see this as the outcome manually having been set to empty and therefore not automatically fill it in.

You can tell if an outcome was manually set to blank/empty by hovering over it. The tool tip will tell you who entered the mark and when.

If an outcome needs to be recorded in situations like these, there is no way to get Arbor to automatically add these for you. Instead, you will need to manually enter the outcomes based on this year's threshold.

How can we tell if Arbor has automatically added an outcome?

If you hover over a mark in the outcomes column of a marksheet, the tool tip will tell you if the mark was automatically entered and when.

A note on the 2025/2026 threshold

On 22nd June 2026, the DfE announced the 2025/26 Phonics Screening Check threshold as 31, instead of the usual 32 applied in previous years. Phonics Screening Check marksheets for 25/26 Arbor will automatically update to reflect 31 as the pass mark and apply the appropriate outcome. Please avoid manually changing outcomes before the marksheets have automatically updated.

Which mark should we use?

Guidance for the codes to use, taken from page 17 of the DfE's Administering the phonics screening check guide.

Please note that the Arbor Support Team is not able to advise which mark you should use. If you are unsure, please contact the DfE for clarification.
 

Once the outcomes have appeared, you can report the screening check outcome to parents. Just click the tick boxes next to the students to report, click the Bulk actions button and select the right option.

You can also add students to interventions in the same way. Once you have ascertained which students did not meet the expected standard, we recommend creating an intervention for these students to help you support them towards the expected standard.