It is disingenuous of the DfES to use the QCA result as an argument in favour of going ahead with the proposed change, in view of the results from the Foundation Stage Profile this year, which show once more that linking letters to sounds, along with writing, are the Early Learning Goals reached by the lowest percentage of pupils. Raising the level of difficulty is likely to result in yet more children being labelled as failures.
Surely we should be questioning whether the existing goal is pitched at a realistic level, rather than putting further inappropriate pressure on normal children, many of whom will not yet be able to pronounce some sounds clearly.
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