Synthetic Phonics
Synthetic Phonics for teachers and parents
| 'Back to basics' seen as key to learning to read
Primary schools should use a "back to basics" method of helping young children to understand sounds as a first step in teaching them to read, a government-appointed review is expected to recommend today. An inquiry ordered amid growing concern about poor standards of reading and writing among schoolchilden is set to conclude that there should be a bigger role for "synthetic phonics," an accelerated learning scheme which teaches the 44 sounds of the English language before youngsters are exposed to books. Nicknamed "fast and first," it differs from the more widespread system of analytic phonics, which involves teaching letter sounds alongside word recognition after reading has begun. The interim report of the so-called Rose review, published today, will look at the effectiveness of a range of different strategies used by schools to teach early reading during the daily literacy hour and elsewhere in the school timetable. The inquiry has been led by Jim Rose, former director of Ofsted and one of the "three wise men" appointed by John Major to investigate achievement in primary schools in the early 1990s. Today's report will be followed by a final one in the new year. The government ordered the review in June after a critical report from the Commons education select committee warned that the number of youngsters starting secondary school with poor levels of literacy was unacceptably high. Research published today by the National Literacy Trust suggests enjoyment of reading is central to learning. Only half of 8,000 pupils from 100 primary schools interviewed said they enjoyed reading "quite a lot" or "very much." Rebecca
Smithers, education editor
With much gratitude to the brilliant 'Gardian Unlimited' website.
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