Even in the wealthiest countries at least 1 in 4 children are failed, and they start high school unable read, write and spell at minimum expected levels. The so-called 'Reading Wars' have been ongoing since I graduated as a primary school teacher, when I was told to scrap 'reading schemes' and 'immerse children in a literacy-rich environment'. I ignored the former, and couldn't ever imagine not doing the latter. Only 3 in the class weren't reading independently (for pleasure) when I sent them up to Year 1. I know why now, but back then - at 23 - I still had so much to learn. My Mum, and my Gran, had taught me so much - AMAZING teachers! - I can't remember learning anything about teaching reading at Uni (despite being there for 4 years) So 18 out of 21 wasn't bad. But not good enough. 

While I was learning, children were being failed - by me. No amount of love and passion can make up for that - but this is what happens within our education system. To improve it, we need teachers to see fabulous teachers, while they are training, and have ongoing support when they have their own classes. It is an ongoing learning journey, but easier when those newly qualified teachers can connect and collaborate with those who fail fewer children. I was lucky to have had years watching my Mum and Gran - I saw how they 'managed' behaviour by ensuring every child felt heard, was given opportunities to PLAY. So my classroom was always noisy - children on task but talking and questioning - and when I needed them to be quiet I employed the 'clapping' technique - clap a rhythm and children stop and copy, until all children are clapping together. Children didnt do things for extrinsic rewards (stickers, marbles in a jar etc) and no child was 'shamed' eg with a name on the board. It's just not what I was taught. But we had the time to spend with children, and to play with them, and hardly any paperwork. Other than hiding the readers from my boss, I didn't feel like I was being 'watched' or judged. But I also didn't have opportunities to learn from others. I was 'qualified' and yet there was so much I needed to learn; could have learned from others.        

Despite what folks might want you to think, many of us who used The Village with Three Corners and taught sight words using flashcards (yes, I grimmace when I say that - when you know more you do more, but at the time this was what I knew) also taught a lot of phonics. What we did back then was try to figure out what the reception children needed, and every day we ended the day with a story on the carpet, after a day spent singing, playing, building, exploring...and parents would come in and help me 'listen to children reading'. The reason I chose the Village with Three Corners (1,2,3 and Away!) was because I could integrate all aspects of literacy, maths, art and science with the characters and stories. Imaginitive play wasn't something I tried to 'fit' in once a week, it was a part of daily life.

I can understand why these reading schemes and 'levelled readers' (and books by Enid Blyton?!) were questioned, but there was so much that we could do when using these 'series' books. 
Sheila McCullagh had a wonderful imagination, and to this day there are adults who will still remember how they FELT while reading her books. Of course there were others (10 - 20%) that hated them as they couldn't read, and felt stupid trying - and this is why they were removed. They were initially replaced with 'real books' (which failed even more children) and then 'phonics books'. I admit I am a little confused about what is used in the UK. However, I have found that finding the books that 'fit' with the child - not only with regards to their existing knowledge, but their interests, is what is most important. So I am again using the books, but differently! 

The more I understood over the years, about what is needed for children to read, the more interested in 'phonics' I became -  understanding the importance of using a code to record language on paper. With 44+ speech sounds, 'mapped' on paper using the 26 letters of the alphabet to create the 'graphemes' in different combinations, we can kitck-start the process and introduce reading and spelling skills to children in easy (if they can hear those speech sounds) cummulative steps. I have a fairly mathematical brain and love puzzles - I like things to 'fit'. So teaching children to 'map' speech sounds and 'pictures of speech sounds' to read and write words, and keep building their 'code knowledge', made sense. When I shifted my perspective towards 'speech to print' phonics - linguistic - rather than 'print to speech' - analytic and synthetic - the way I taught became far easier for children to understand. I always embraced phonics, but not how phonics was being taught - again, because children are all so different. 

There is a HUGE distance to travel between 'reading' decodable texts with a restricted number of graphemes (that align with the instruction) and reading 'real' (authentic) texts however. The grapheme to phoneme correspondences taught within DfE validated 'systematic, synthetic phonics programmes' are only around 1/3 of what I call 'the whole code' (as seen on our Speech Sound Walls, in the Spelling Clouds) Those using these programmes do not seem clear about how the children explore the 'whole code'. 
 

We need children to move out of the 'explicit teaching' phase (when the teacher plays such a vital role) and into the 'implicit learning' phase (where children know what they are doing - blending graphemes and have strategies to use when they face unfamiliar correspondences) as quickly and easily as possible. Unfortunately most children who struggle have stayed in the 'explicit teaching' phase of synthetic phonics far too long and, because the instruction isn't effective for them, they are no longer engaged, and many are exibiting avoidance tactics. Instead of getting something different, in reception, they were given more of the same. Schools are told not to use something else (See Note 9) 

Ironically it is the approach to instruction schools using Systematic, Synthetic Phonics are forced to use. This 'explicit' teaching part should be over well before the UK Phonics Screener Check as it is just the 'kick-start' and so much else is needed. Some children are not able to recognise and blend more than 32 out of 40 simple 'regular' words, with only the 100 or so taught correspondences, after 2 whole years of instruction - with daily 'explicit' synthetic phonics instruction. Not because they are not capable of learning phonics, but because they are not capable of learning it in this way. They need DIFFERENT orthographic learning opportunities.  

There are a relatively small number of words that make up a high percentage of the words children need to read and write. (See notes 2 and 6) It is why they are called 'high frequency' words! However children learning with these systematic, synthetic phonics programmes can often only know about 40 even after a whole year of school. When taught differertly over 85% will be able to read and spell - through word mapping - over 400. This would be impossible for most reception classes in the UK because of the restrictions put in teachers in KS1.

 

According to the DfE 'A complete programme is one that provides all that is essential to teach SSP to children in reception and key stage 1 years of mainstream primary schools, up to or beyond the standards expected by the national curriculum, and provides sufficient support for them to become fluent readers'

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How can we expect the 95+% of children who are dapable of becoming fluent readers, become fluent readers when so much is missing? 
Most parents should not need to book tutoring - their child should learn to read and spell at school. 
The system creates huge issues to families, that are costly - emotionally and financially.
I am working with some amazing people to launch EDSLiP in the UK
(Early Dyslexia Screening & Literacy Intervention Project)
If we can identify children early, we can involve parents and carers, and step in and help in school and at home - before the end of KS1. 

There will be around 1 in 25 children in any mainstream class who face real challenges learning to read and spell, and may never comprehend complex texts, but most who fail do not need to struggle at all; they become instructional casualties because no-one could see they learn differently, and because teachers are forced to use synthetic phonics. Your child, if you are reading this, is likely a child who has not yet connected with our amazing written language and developed their identity as a 'readie'. I would love to help them feel heard, accepted, successful, independent and FABULOUS - while also working to prevent these issues for others. When they come home from school they should be thinking about nothing other than to eat play, read for pleasure and sleep. No tutoring, no homework. Until then I will make their lives as easy as possible - by teaching them to read. 

Miss Emma X