Is phonics a panacea that comes back into fashion whenever thinking about early literacy gets confused? Julian Grenier considers what children really need to read
The teaching of reading and writing is in the news again. Last month the Daily Telegraph reported that 200,000 seven-year-olds are not learning to read properly. Last week the Government announced its plans to merge the literacy and numeracy strategies and, perhaps predictably, place greater emphasis on the traditional teaching of phonics in a further bid to raise standards.
In its review of the first four years of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), Ofsted claimed that four in ten teachers still do not appreciate the importance of phonics. Although Ofsted found that teaching in reception classes is mostly good and only rarely unsatisfactory, attention has still turned to the Foundation Stage. David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, commented that 'if you get phonics right at an early stage, you are less likely to have to deal with difficulties at a later stage'.
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