At its annual conference in Manchester, the National Union of Teachers voted for the union to provide its members with alternative guidance to its members featuring a range of methods for teaching reading besides the Government's 'Letters and Sounds' approach.
The union also said that children are being put under 'intolerable' pressure by the current testing and assessment system and called for homework at primary school level to be scrapped. It also called for more play-based learning opportunities in the primary curriculum.
John Bangs, NUT head of education, said, 'We are concerned about a shift in the literacy strategy - the original strategy had phonics at the centre, but now the strategy at the first stages is almost exclusively phonics. We are concerned that there is no flexibility.'
New research published this week by the University of York shows that children at risk of hereditary dyslexia may have slow language development that hinders their ability to learn through phonics (see page 6).
Wendy Scott, early years specialist and president of Training, Advancement and Co-operation in the Teaching of Young Children (TACTYC), said, 'This research suggests that the NUT is right to call for a varied approach to early reading, especially when coupled with the Hull research (News, 20 March). Many children cannot articulate some sounds accurately before five, and so it is not reasonable to expect them to link letters and sounds. And, of course, there are the issues for children in the early stages of learning English.'
Margaret Edgington, early years consultant, said, 'I'm glad that the NUT has spoken out. I believe that teachers need a variety of approaches when teaching reading in order to cater for individual needs. I don't think Governments should dictate how teachers teach at all.
'But, more importantly, I think we should be delaying the start of formal teaching of reading and writing until children are six - up until then the focus should be on speaking and listening, love of books, stories, songs and rhyme, making up and acting out stories,' she added.
Dominic Wyse, senior lecturer in Early Years and Primary Education at Cambridge University, said, 'There isn't really the research to back up the Government move to synthetic phonics. It does not address children's comprehension or motivation to read, and it comes with a pressure to perform, which is a problem. The Government should be cautious of imposing methods of teaching.'
