[senco-forum] Re Literacy

We are slowly but surely moving into a situation of general agreement that synthetic phonics is a more effective means of teaching children to read than the socalled 'mix of methods' which quite disgustingly, condemns more than a million people to illiteracy every decade. That is not an opinion. That is easily verifiable fact and the rate at which teachers are now beginning to accept this fact is beginning to accelerate.   As Mary says - 'phonics is not a method of teaching reading - it IS the writing and reading code'   Everyone who can read has mastered this code and it is not possible to read unless this code is mastered. That surely, is beyond question. The debate is now moving towards the question 'How can we ensure that all children master this code?' and that is an enormouns step forward.

The question currently facing teachers is 'should ALL children be compulsorily taught by synthetic phonics whether they need it or not, or should we reserve synthetic phonics effort for those who fail to make progress in reading in Year 1?  Is it really logical to say that we should teach all children by one imposed method simply because it will do no harm to those 80% or so who do not need it and who are not experiencing any problem in learning to read anyway? Can we really justify subjecting 80% of children to a series of skills exercises of which they have no need? I would regard it as harmful to have to sit through an extensive series of unnecessary sessions which taught me nothing and such a practice would certainly be contrary to the principles of good teaching.   We must assume of course that because it would be almost impossible to dream up a more effective strategy for putting children off reading for life, the DfEES will come out strongly in its favour. 

Personally, I think it is easier to make a case for selecting children who are not making normal reading progress in Year 1 and put them through a full synthetic phonics course under the tuition of a specially trained adult providing that course is complete before the end of Year 2.  I would favour having a trained synthetic phonics adult in every Infant school. This adult could be someone whose work focused exclusively on the delivery of synthetic phonics and not on general teaching. This person could perhaps be paid somewhere between a TA and a teacher but whose continued employment depended on him/her delivering national average results.  I'm pretty sure this could be very cost effective as it would be likely to reduce the number of children graduating to secondary schools with eductional and/or  behavioural difficulties. 

The balance of children not making progress is likely then to be very small, probably around 2%,. The learning difficulties being experienced by these children will be very specific and will vary enormously and of course, requires very full assessment and remedial attention. 

Eddie C.