The Phonics Test for 6 Year Olds

[WroxhamSchool]

Hello from me!

Just a little introduction, I am the Deputy Head of The Wroxham Primary, in Potters Bar. We are a one form entry Primary School with a Nursery. We work on the principle that our children are the most important part of the school and as a result, we include them in their learning. For example the children help work out where we are going to go with our topics and they select the challenge of work they feel confident with, which makes for a great learning environment and one where the children feel valued. The school has moved from Special Measures in 2003 to Outstanding in in 2006, where it has stayed ever since.

That is just a little bit of background information, now onto the main event! I emailed Rowan Davies, who suggested that I posted on here, so I hope that is ok?

As some of you know the Government has decided to bring in a new test for our six year olds in England, to check their phonic knowledge. We at our school and many other organisations (see list below) are against this idea, as it goes against everything that we believe in.

We feel that this test, which will be reported to OFSTED, will narrow the curriculum for the children in Nursery and Reception, as some schools will feel pressure to ensure that the children are ready for the test in Year 1. This is not a good thing as it will result in putting some of our children off reading, as not every child accesses reading through this method.

We have started a campaign, which is gathering momentum, with our base being readingshouldbefun.wordpress.com

On the Blog you will find lots of information about the test, in addition to this you will find a short video showing the real meaning of reading (which does include phonics, just not only phonics).

We would love to have the support of Mumsnet, as we know that you are key to our children's learning (we only have them 6 hours a day!).

I would be interested to hear from people and try to answer any of your questions. I will also direct some of the people who are backing the campaign to this site, as they have additional information to myself.

Below is a statement from The Cambridge Primary Review, which details their position, but I would like to emphasise that we do not have a problem with the teaching of phonics, just the fact that our 6 yr olds don't need to be tested, or have the data sent to OFSTED.

Thanks in advance

Roger Billing

One of the key recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review, the most comprehensive research into English primary education for the last forty years, recommends that children should have an entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Research evidence in this country and internationally shows that talking to and with young children is of great developmental importance. Telling stories, listening to stories and enjoying books is a vital part of learning throughout primary school. The following video clip shows that enjoying high quality literature at primary school is essential and that learning to read should be a varied and rewarding process.

Some of the Groups backing the Campaign

David Reedy ? President, UKLA

John Coe ? Chairman, National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

Alison Peacock ? National Network Leader for the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR)

John Hickman ? Chair, National Association of Advisers for English (NAAE)

Russell Hobby ? General Secretary, National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT)

Christine Blower ? General Secretary, National Union of Teachers (NUT)

Professor Trisha Maynard ? Chair of The Association for the Professional Development of Early Year Educators (TACTYC)

Bill Goodhand ? Chair of The National Association for Small Schools (NASS)

The French approach to curriculum is most definitely your number 1 - a body of knowledge to be transmitted ("transmissions des savoirs"). My problem with the French approach is that (a) it is not enough to acquire knowledge and to regurgitate it in known situations, you need to be able to use that knowledge to analyse, synthesise and evaluate the world around you, now and in the future (b) it doesn't teach pupils to question received wisdom (c) it gives pupils the impression that that which is not taught in the classroom and which is not examined is not knowledge.

A school's curriculum consists of all those activities designed or encouraged within its organisational framework to promote the intellectual personal, social and physical development of its pupils. It includes not only the formal programme of lessons, but also the 'informal' programme of so-called extracurricular activities as well as all those features which produce the school's 'ethos', such as the quality of relationships, the concern for equality of opportunity, the values exemplified in the way the school sets about its task and the way in which it is organised and managed. Teaching and learning styles strongly influence the curriculum and in practice they cannot be separated from it. Since pupils learn from all these things, it needs to be ensured that all are consistent in supporting the school's intentions.

'it is not enough to acquire knowledge and to regurgitate it in known situations, you need to be able to use that knowledge to analyse, synthesise and evaluate the world around you, now and in the future'

Noone would argue with that.
I do know that my French nieces and nephews have had a superb education of the kind that is generally only available in private schools in the UK.
My niece is at the Sorbonne now and works like a dog-as she should.

A big issue I had with my own education is that I acquired many interesting cross-cultural skills that were a by-product rather than a consciously laid down objective of the curriculum. And I can see that happening to DD. I value those skills very highly (and so do most of the parents I know) but they are not captured in any shape or form in the evaluation of pupils' progress. It is actually quite dangerous to have a lot of semi-conscious knowledge with no external validation - it is good to know what you know and to be able to prove it to others.

moondog - I imagine your niece did a Bac L?

It's about learning how to learn which of course must occur.
There is no avoiding the fact that some things have to be acquired by rote and errorless fluent knowledge of the basics (eg letter sounds, timestables) frees the mind to concentrate on higher things which require more mental effort.

mrz - why wouldn't design the organisation around all that stuff? That's what good business practice would tell you to do... and I think it is what the best private schools do.

No one would argue that there needs to a syllabus - the knowledge and skills but the needs of the children in my bog standard primary school (socially economically deprived area) is very different from those attending an expensive private school in a nice leafy suburb. What they need to learn is the same but how will be different. My children can't learn if they are hungry so sometimes feeding them is a priority, sometimes they are too tired to learn because the police raided their home, sometimes they are too emotionally upset to learn... Knowing the children and overcoming the barriers to their learning is as much a part of our curriculum as schemes of work.

No it isn't part of duty of care.
and to me your definition is very narrow

Bonsoir, as far as (b) it doesn't teach pupils to question received wisdom is concerned, that was originally one reason for teaching philosophy to all in Terminale. That reasoning can no longer work when the powers that be dictate the % of pass rates at bac level and when a high proportion of school leavers "has" to enter higher education, (ie pass the bac). I have both taken part in and presided "'jurys de bac', and it is a scarily cynical experience.

Pupils and parents now dislike philosophy as a bac-level course, as there is no "right answer" to gain marks on exam day. The freedom of thought initially intended is denigrated. And TBH the current gvmt in France is not generally in favour of any form of questioning of its received wisdom, or of extended cultural knowledge...

As for (c) it gives pupils the impression that that which is not taught in the classroom and which is not examined is not knowledge, IME the situation is worse than that. In fact, pupils think that that which is taught in the classroom but which is not examined is not knowledge, or at least not relevant to passing and therefore useless.

Found this today
A Behavioural and Neurobiological Investigation of Basic Reading Processes - Part 1 Forward and Index
and A Behavioural and Neurobiological Investigation of Basic Reading Processes - Part 2 An Evaluation of Basic Reading Processes (pages 1- 187)
which summarises much of the more recent international reading research of recent years.

AA - I am aware of the reasons for including philosophie as a subject at lycée, and also aware that philosophie as taught and examined in the bac is entirely discredited as an indicator of skills, knowledge or experience by reputable authorities in higher education. It is a very sorry state of affairs. The assessment of English in the bac is also exceedingly opaque.

I don't think there is any significant difference in meaning between your (c) and mine!

Sorry swallowedAfly but I think yours is a very narrow view of curriculum and is perhaps more common with teachers who teach discrete subjects in secondary schools.

We have been teaching our 4 year old son to read using synthetic phonics. A leapfrog toy which sounds out the letters stuck on the fridge at age 2 was great, but then regular trips to the library to find a paltry range of phonics books was not so great. I wrote my own story "Dag and Pam", all the words were CVC, so it was the first book my son read, he was 3 years and 8 months old. He read the story and understood it. He is now devouring the "reading corner: phonics" books from the library. He can now write simple sentences using phonics: "I keep lots of sticks" is a recent one. Because he has the tools that phonics gives, he can devote much less brain power to memorising simple words, and therefore gets less confused. Words such as Sword and Knight are creeping into his vocabulary. I am thankful I chose to adopt synthetic phonics. Don't get me wrong, if it hadn't proved useful it would have been binned, I'm no ideologist. I talk to quite a few teachers and their assistants in my local area. They already do these tests, so it seems the problem is about sending the results to ofsted.

Don't get me wrong, if it hadn't proved useful it would have been binned, I'm no ideologist.

It 's sad that you feel you have to make this disclaimer.

SP isn't an ideology, it is a method of teaching reading which is used because of precisely what you have discovered, it is effective. A great many of the teachers who use it have used 'other methods'; they stick with SP because it is the most successful method for teaching the greatest number of children. There is nothing 'ideological' about that. It is pure, experience driven, pragmatism.

It 's sad that you feel you have to make this disclaimer

I feel that making the disclaimer pre-empts any thought that I'm in one camp or another (pro or anti SP), as this discussion seems to have been taken in some parts.

SP isn't an ideology

SP (or any teaching method for that matter) is in danger of becoming an ideology if it's continuosly used even where it is not shown to be beneficial. There are many people who seem to give the impression that SP is a curall for illiteracy. There seems to be ignorance of the fact that parents and teachers have raised instances of where SP is not appropriate for their children.

In my case it has proven very useful, I don't for one minute think that means it should be used with every child. I've often heard the mantra coming out of the education community "every child is unique". It often seems to me to have a very hollow ring to it.