isn’t the only answer’

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In the classroom, the focus on phonics can sideline alternative approaches and demotivate children who find SSP difficult.

Merike Williams, a year 1 and 2 teacher from Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, says: “I think we have too much of an emphasis on phonics – it isn’t the only answer to teaching reading. It works well for the typical child, but what about children for whom it clearly isn’t working?

“I know that there are other ways of teaching reading. Learning through play –with carefully planned resources – has been incredibly successful for me. I have seen children can pick up language acquisition and reading skills through their play.”

‘Less time to read, write and listen’ Many educators share Merike’s experience. According to a group of year 1 teachers from Camden: “Over-focusing on phonics takes away from other important elements of children becoming confident, engaged readers, such as having space to explore and develop their own responses and connections with stories, poems and information. There is less time to read to children, hear them tell their own stories and listen to them recite rhymes and poems – all strategies which greatly benefit reading.”

The teachers’ concerns are echoed in research. UCL’s Wyse and Bradbury found substantial evidence for “balanced instruction”, which teaches word, sentence and whole-text skills alongside phonics. England’s phonics-centred approach is not supported by a robust evidence base. Rebalancing it will take significant, systematic change from Government. Accountability measures have ensured schools prioritise SSP. Ofsted insists on it, recommending that “the teaching of reading, including systematic synthetic phonics, is the core purpose of the reception year”. Phonics-focused ‘deep dives’ of early reading are mandatory within inspections.

Nonsensical decodable words

On top of these demands, there is the phonics screening check for year 1 children, in which they read 40 decodable words, including nonsense words such as ‘jif’ or ‘ret’. Children learn these non-words to prepare for the test – meaningless words they will never use in their reading or writing again. No element of the test assesses their comprehension of the words they are reading.

The group of year 1 teachers from Camden, like many others, believe the check has been counterproductive to the teaching of reading: “Like other high-stakes testing in primary schools, the phonics check dictates what is taught in an unhelpful way and is more a measure of whether children have been prepared for a test rather than anything else. Spending time teaching children how to read nonsense words is not time usefully spent and does not meaningfully give them the opportunity to develop as readers. It is a barrier to effective teaching of reading.” n What do you think about phonics? Email your views to educate@neu.org.uk

The check is just one part of Government’s flawed approach to reading. Too much money and time is invested in an approach not supported by evidence. Policy should be based on a principle that many teachers already understand: phonics is an important puzzle piece of teaching children to read, but it should not be the complete picture.

The teaching of reading needs to be rebalanced, so teachers have the time and resources to support children’s comprehension and love of reading, as well as their ability to decode.

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