OFSTED criticise reading instruction ...

[mrz]

I wonder how many more schools around the country would "fail" to meet expectations

www.ofsted.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/surveys-and-good-practice/r/Ready%20to%20read%20-%20How%20a%20sample%20of%20primary%20schools%20in%20Stoke-on-Trent%20teach%20people%20to%20read.pdf

"Not all the schools taught early reading using phonic decoding as ‘the route to decode words’, as required by the national curriculum
2014. Three headteachers were unaware of this requirement in the new programme of study.

Almost all of the schools visited used a range of early reading books to teach young children to read. Many of these books, however, were not ‘closely matched to pupils’ developing phonics knowledge and knowledge of common exception words’. In other words, the books used did not support young children to practise and apply the phonics they were learning.

Four of the schools did not send home phonically decodable books so that
children could practise their new knowledge and skills at home."

kesstrel - I don't underestimate it, believe me! But the way to counteract ideology (in any domain) is through effective communication of the benefits for all parties of another course of action. I am fully aware that this is a massive undertaking.

I also observe with incredulity the psychoanalytic and philosophical ideology prevalent in French education (a form of resistance to science and its application to education that is quite different to anything encountered in England)...

That's really interesting. I've read Why Freud was Wrong, and it is simply astounding that people still cling to those ideas. How do they affect French education?

Oh gosh, you could write an encyclopaedia book!

One of my pet hates is the widely held theory that children are unable to learn to read until they are 6 years old and "have undergone separation from their mother."

The fact that all DC undergo this separation to the same timetable and may then learn to read in the academic year beginning in the September of the calendar year of their sixth birthday and no other is not widely questioned.

We do phonics at school and my dd brought home ort books as first readers with words like who, flour, spaceman, pancake etc. I had no idea how phonics learners were meant to progress using those books. My dd was doing ort songbirds level 4 by then at home but was struggling with these words. (Yes I was talking to school about her reading level).

My ds, on the other hand, is going to struggle with phonics as he has speech and language problems. He actually knows a lots of phonemes but how do you turn eg c-a-t into cat is you can't work with that many pieces of information in your head or work out cat is c-a-t when you call a cat an 'a' (no c or t)? I believe dyslexics can also find phonics difficult. I think phonics are brilliant but used in isolation they are going to leave some kids behind.

how do you turn eg c-a-t into cat is you can't work with that many pieces of information in your head

I would try blending words 'progressively'. Blend the first 2 sounds together and get them secure, then add the next sound etc. all through the word. It cuts down the load on memory.
Does he have a programme to improve speech production which involves learning to pronounce each phoneme? If he does, phonics should help.

I believe dyslexics can also find phonics difficult.

This is the weirdest statement (no offence meant) as ever since the 1920s at least phonics has played a key role in specialist dyslexia programmes when much mainstream teaching was based on Look & Say (especially in the US). Now that phonics has really gone 'mainstream' we're suddenly hearing that phonics is no good for dyslexics!
It's piece of deliberate misinformation being put about by anti phonics people!

A tiny, tiny number of children don't seem to be able to learn with phonics but your common or garden dyslexic, or struggling reader, usually does just fine.

The dyslexic statement was, I agree, anecdotal, based on a few friends (three kids). It may be they needed more than one approach together as they struggled with phonics alone.

Yes, my ds has done work on each phoneme (hence recognising/saying a lot of them at preschool level). But being able to hear and say a phoneme clearly in isolation is one thing, saying it in words within sentences is quite another . If I tried getting him to blend just c-a, he would just forget about the t. It took 9 months of therapy to get him to start marking final consonants and we are celebrating that success before working on trying to get the correct ones! There are a few more steps required in language development before mainstream phonics can help but in the meantime he is beginning to recognise some words by sight. I do think phonics are great but I can also see their limitations in some children.

Well I've recently spent a few hours recovering, sellotaping together and patching up my DC's schools mainly ancient collection of ks1 reading books ready for the next academic year. 90% plus are 1990s ORT vintage. I'm sure there was mention of the matched funding at some point, but there is no physical evidence of it. I wonder why we are requires improvement?

Thanks, Bonsoir, that made me laugh out loud!

Kesstrel: you underestimate the degree of resistance there has been over the years in departments of education: this is primarily based on ideology.

Or perhaps they resist the 'nothing but phonics' doctrine, because they have a fuller understanding how the inconsistencies of English spelling affect learning to read and write?

They are perhaps also more aware of the different fads and fashions for teaching English which have come and gone over the years and are therefore a little more cautious about swallowing the latest one pushed by people with friends in high places?

. If I tried getting him to blend just c-a, he would just forget about the t.

He doesn't have to remember the 't'. It's there, written on the page for him to sound out when he's stuck the 'c' & 'a' togethr! On the other hand, would he have forgotten the 'ca' by the time he's worked out the 't'?

I appreciate your difficulties. But I'm sure he'll get there in the end.

I'm interested in the dyslexia issue.
My dd had dyslexic type issues diagnosed at the end of y2. She was a very good reader (top of class at the time) but there was discrepancy with her writing, mainly spelling.

The advice and also the intervention she had through juniors was intense phonics sessions twice a week before school. As advised and recommended by the dyslexia specialist.

Have to say that it made a huge difference and her writing is now far more in line with her writing, and she tackles more complex books with ease now she's in y7.

Look and say, or sight reading as we discovered dd was doing without realising earlier, can only go far. The children relying on this get stuck after a whole especially in juniors.

Some schools claimed they were buying Floppy's Phonics and then bought a whole load of bog standard ORT books as well. Then have a wobbly because that parent refuses to read the non phonic books with their ds and provides work tailored to the individual needs of said child, set by an experienced FS/KS one teacher.

they apparently teach reading well, but still send home sight word books.