HT doesn't believe in phonics

[gigglyhiggly]

Would just like some others views really. Have NC.

Our school got really poor results in the yr1 phonics check. The HT and staff were asked if this had identified any gaps in the learning for the children. The HT feels that children 'read for meaning' and plenty of the good readers had misread the nonsense words for real words. And the test required too high a pass mark.

The staff said that the children were not aware which were real words and which were not when the test was done. (I understood they were flagged as made up words?)

Progression and attainment in writing in the school is worrying. There has been a focus on improving all the core subjects for the last academic year or so with lots of change in school generally.

If this was your school (as staff) or your child's school, would you be happy? Any thoughts?

imo - absolutely unforgiveable. It would be ideal if HT could be engaged and directed to schools with similar intake getting all children reading which means their children decoding fluently so that they can tackle the huge vocabulary they'll encounter later in their school live.

A large coloured pic of a 'pretend' creature accompanied the non-word element of the test - these were unmissable.

I hope your governors do something about this situation - but I imagine that someone will alert Ofsted about this state of affairs.

Good luck.

Thankyou

School has recently come out of SM, incidentally.

Are you sure that the HT 'doesn't believe in phonics'?

Do you mean that phonics aren't being taught properly (which sounds likely, given what you've said).

Bit of both really. It doesn't appear to be being taught effectively, but the HT doesn't think it is that important because we use a mixture of strategies to read, such as clues from the context apparently .

That was in answer to a question about whether or not the children where able to decode accurately.

I think part of the reason the test is in place is to force schools like yours to improve their teaching.

"The staff said that the children were not aware which were real words and which were not when the test was done".

Ask for that in writing. They have not/not followed the (very clear) instructions in how to conduct the test. Then complain to the Governors. It is simply not good enough to "blame" the test for providing an inadequate grounding in phonics. It's also totally meaningless (and deliberately misleading?) to suggest that phonics and reading for meaning are mutually exclusive.

It is a screening test - those who score less that the prescribed mark (which is the basic score that all NT children are capable of reaching) should be offered additional support. What will they be doing?

What a sad situation, giggly! Unfortunately, many heads haven't the first idea how reading and spelling should be taught and simply follow their own blind prejudices.
I have just heard from St George's CE Primary School in Wandsworth, which has implemented a good quality phonics programme. They tell me that 28 out of 29 of their children reached the required standard 32 - 40. One child was absent, came back and passed. This gave the school an overall 96.5% pass rate, the highest in Wandsworth. The average was 66% in Wandsworth overall.
This is what can be achieved with a well structured, systematically taught phonics programme.

I am very disappointed with their response.

I am, of course, disappointed with their results, but I would be fine with it if they saw it as a signal to sort out their phonics teaching.

I am worried that is doesn't seem to matter to them. I am worried that the generally poor attainment and progress all round will not improve if they don't address the basics.

Taking it to the governors - well, yes, exactly

Perhaps the HT doesn't believe in Ofsted either?

And if this ^^ was the information/response given to the governors? Just hypothetically of course? apart from feeling utter despair

Personal beliefs or evidence-based practice?

literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/personal-beliefs-or-evidence-based.html

I would be horrified. How a teacher can ignore all the evidence in favour of an approach that leaves up to 20% of children struggling is beyond me.

Reading for meaning and phonics are not oppositional strategies. You use phonics to decode unfamiliar words so that you CAN understand the meaning.

"but the HT doesn't think it is that important because we use a mixture of strategies to read, such as clues from the context apparently . "

I've come across this attitude before -I'm wondering if it is more prevalent in older teachers (nearing retirement) who have taught in a particular way for a very long time and are more resistant to change/new ideas.

Not that this helps your particular governors very much!

How about a governor ordered requested inset on phonics - get someone in who really knows about phonics teaching, how to do it effectively and the latest research.

( could you soften the message to the head by saying - "regardless of what we mistakenly believe think about how children learn reading, the school will be evaluated on the basis of this phonics check so we need to show Ofsted that we are putting things in place to try and improve the scores children achieve!")

I think for a school especially one recently out of SM to take that attitude is suicidal ... do reading results across the school suggest their mixed methods are in any way working? I would suspect that results aren't great.

The person administering the test was meant to tell the children which words were real and which were pseudo (and all pseudo words had colourful characters next to them to reinforce the difference).

Thanks all. I looked at the DfE guidance on administering the check, so it was surprising to hear that apparently the children didn't know which were made up words mrz thanks too, I was thinking of you when I became aware of all this

Results throughout are not reassuring, unsurprisingly enough.

Educatingarti - great suggestion. It is all very disturbing TBH. I am really worried about it.

This does gives the impression of a school and a head teacher who are not living in the real world. They may not like phonics and they may not like the test but they really need to understand that this is the only game in town. Having very recently come out of special measures, they will be getting another Ofsted visit in the not too distant future and this kind of attitude, especially with the new emphasis on teaching and learning, is going to put them straight back into special measures if they are not very careful.