Blogspot moved to the website

Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to read the blogs I have posted over the past few years on this blogspot.

Blog postings have now been incorporated into the Focus on Phonics website and any future musings can be found here

Why 'good' readers might have performed poorly on the Year 1 Phonics Check

If threads on Mumsnet and TES are anything to go by, there appear to have been significant numbers of children with above average reading ability who did not reach the required standard on the phonics check (correctly reading 32 out of a possible 40 words).

So should parents be concerned if their child did not perform in the check as well as they were expected to, based on their current reading levels?

One of the aspects of the check that has caused a lot of debate has been the use of ‘pseudo’ or ‘alien’ words.

It appears that some able readers could decode the words but got confused when it was a word they'd never heard of. If they did not recognise it as a ‘real’ word, they changed it to something recognisable. Even if they had decoded the word correctly (e.g. ‘strom’) but then changed it to a real word (‘storm’), their final answer had to be taken and teachers were not allowed to give any help with this.

Some children will have been used to reading these pseudo words prior to the test (some phonics schemes routinely use them) and all children should have been made aware exactly which words in the test were real and which were not – maybe some teachers administering the check did not make this clear enough.

Setting this issue aside, there are more important reasons for a lower than expected performance.

• Firstly if the child has poor phonic decoding skills and is reliant on whole word and context strategies, they would probably not have performed well on the check. This can lead to literacy problems later on, so it is useful to have it highlighted so it does not lead to future difficulties.
• Secondly, if the child is not reading accurately, they may be flying through books, getting the general gist of the text but missing or guessing words as they go along. This may not present itself as a problem – particularly if the child reads silently – but as the texts get more challenging in Key Stage 2, this can become a problem. The habit of glossing over words is quite difficult to break once it has become entrenched, so again it is useful to highlight the problem of inaccurate reading now.

If a child is strong at writing and spelling, poor performance on the phonics reading check may be no real cause for concern. If a child has performed poorly on the check and their writing ability is not matched to perceived reading ability, it is likely that the check has highlighted a problem that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. This will enable the school to provide additional phonics support in the coming year.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – information for parents

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.

This is an important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.

Nurseries, pre-schools, reception classes and childminders registered to deliver the EYFS must follow a legal document called the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. This sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.

The framework sets out:

• The legal welfare requirements that everyone registered to look after children must follow to keep your child safe and promote their welfare
• The 7 areas of learning and development which guide professionals’ engagement with your child’s play and activities as they learn new skills and knowledge
• Assessments that will tell you about your child’s progress through the EYFS
• Expected levels that your child should reach at age 5, usually the end of the reception year; these expectations are called the “Early Learning Goals (ELGs)”

There is also guidance for the professionals supporting your child on planning the learning activities, and observing and assessing what and how your child is learning and developing.

The seven areas of learning and development are:

• Communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
• Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
• Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
• Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
• Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
• Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
• Expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, roleplay, and design and technology.

Assessment

If your child attends an Early Years setting, they will have a Progress Check between the age of two and three. This will identify their strengths and any area where progress is less than expected and where additional support may be needed.

All children are assessed at the end of the Early Years Foundation stage (in the summer term of their reception year). This assessment is called the EYFS Profile and gives a full picture of a child’s knowledge, understanding and abilities, their progress against expected levels, and their readiness for Year 1.

For more information on the EYFS and how you can help your child at home in supporting their learning and development, visit the Foundation Years website.

English grammar, punctuation and spelling test (Key Stage 2)

The Department for Education has announced a new English grammar, punctuation and spelling test for pupils in Year Six. From 2013, the statutory test will replace the current English writing test that forms part of the National curriculum tests taken at the end of Key Stage 2.

Changes will also be made to GCSEs, so that from 2013 there will be marks awarded for spelling, punctuation and grammar in key subjects.

The new Key Stage 2 test will assess:
* vocabulary
* sentence-grammar
* spelling
* punctuation
(handwriting may also be included – this will be determined later in the year following trials)

One thing that seems to be apparent from the sample questions is that children will be required to know a lot of grammatical terms to enable them to do well in the test (adverb, subordinate clause, suffix, active v passive voice etc.).

The National Association for the Teaching of English has said that a revised focus on spelling, grammar and punctuation will "impoverish" teaching and turn pupils off the subject, claiming that grammar is best taught in context rather than through formal exercises. This is an argument that will surely be supported by others, as the question of whether formal grammar is an effective way of teaching children to write is a longstanding debate.

The new test reflects the Government’s beliefs that ‘children should have mastered these important aspects of English by the time they leave primary school, and that appropriate recognition should be given to good use of English throughout their schooling’.

Earlier this year a CBI survey of more than 500 firms showed that 42% were dissatisfied with school leavers' use of English and 12% of employers provided remedial literacy training for graduates. Hopefully this new test in its final format can provide the basis for addressing these weaknesses.

Examples of the format of test questions can be found here

English National Curriculum - Draft Proposals

Michael Gove has announced draft proposals for the English National Curriculum (Key Stage 1 and 2) that will be introduced to primary schools in September 2014.

The main aims of the new curriculum are to raise standards in English, whilst at the same time getting children reading for enjoyment.

There has been a lot of anti-phonics press lately, particularly leading up to the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. Much of this is because of the emphasis being placed on decoding words rather than on encouraging reading for meaning and reading for pleasure.

The draft curriculum has obviously been designed with these criticisms firmly in mind. There is a strong emphasis on phonics, but also on other reading skills. It explicitly states that different kinds of teaching are needed for word reading and for comprehension.

I hope that this will be well received. Something drastic needs to be done to raise the reading standards in this country. It is shocking that so many children are still leaving primary school unable to access the curriculum due to poor reading skills. It is also sad that there is so much vitriol whenever the subject of reading and phonics is discussed by those in favour and those against placing undue importance on it.

If the new curriculum can reduce the arguing and achieve what it is setting out to do, then the future could be brighter for many more young readers.

Detailed information on the draft National Curriculum can be found here

Oxford Owl - Phonics: Ask the Expert

Live chat sessions between 7pm and 10pm from Monday 21st to Friday 25th May

If you are a member of Facebook and have questions to ask about the Year 1 Phonics check, you might be interested in:
Oxford Owl Phonics: Ask the Expert; a week-long live forum for parents to put their questions to phonics expert and educational consultant, Laura Sharp.

See the Oxford Owl Facebook Page for more information.

Year 1 Phonics Check - revisited

There has been an enormous amount of interest over the past few weeks from parents looking for information on the Phonics Screening Check (test).

I have to admit to actually turning off the paid Google ad for this due to scarily high click-through rates!

The main thing to remember about the check is that the sole aim is to measure your child’s competence in decoding words – saying the sounds from left to right through the word and blending the sounds to hear the whole word.

During Reception and Year 1, your child will have been taught the basic code of the English language and common spellings of the advanced alphabetic code. If you want a detailed summary of this, see The English Alphabet Code (Author - Debbie Hepplewhite).

If your child already reads well, they will still take the test. It will check whether they are using their phonic knowledge to read words, or have learnt lots of words from memory and now have a good sight vocabulary. That is why the nonsense (or alien / fake) words are included – to make sure children actually sound out all through the word to read it. The test will spot any gaps in phonic knowledge and where additional support might be required.

There is already a lot of testing in schools, but despite this, a large number of children are still leaving primary school unable to read properly. Until now, there has not been a test for the very skill that underpins all the other reading skills such as reading fluency, reading with expression or reading comprehension. These are vital skills, and highly important so your child understands what they have read, but your child needs to learn how to actually read (decode) words first. You can only understand what you have read if you can read it in the first place.

This latest test will hopefully pick up any problems at a very early stage. All good schools will have been doing a routine phonics check, but until now it has not been compulsory.

At the end of the day, the results will show if a school is teaching children the basic skills they need to read. Can’t really argue with that can you..........?

Year 1 Phonics Check

The following is taken from the Department for Education website:

A new, statutory phonics screening check for all pupils will be introduced in Year 1 this academic year. The check will be administered during the week commencing 18 June.

The purpose of the Year 1 phonics screening check is to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.

Pupils who have not reached this standard at the end of Year 1, should receive support from their school to ensure they can improve their phonic decoding skills. Pupils will then have the opportunity to retake the screening check.

For parents who want to help their children prepare for the phonics check, Oxford University Press have published 'Read With Biff, Chip and Kipper: My Phonics Kit.

The pack includes:

* Three phonics workbooks to provide lots of practice in this early reading skill. Each workbook includes tips for doing the activities together, and all of the sounds are included on the CD-ROM for your reference.

* Six carefully levelled interactive ebooks and activities on a CD-ROM.

* A colourful reward chart with stickers to build confidence.

* Advice from phonics expert Laura Sharp, providing answers to questions such as 'What is phonics?' 'How do I say the sounds?', 'How can I support my child with phonics and the phonics check?'.

Details can be found here on the website.

New Songbirds Phonics home editions

Songbirds Phonics, written by Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson, have now been published in great value home versions.

For more information on these lovely books that are ideal for practising early blending skills, visit the website here

Two thirds of children fail new phonics reading test

The test-run of the new primary school reading check (due to be introduced in June 2012 for Year 1 pupils in England) suggests that two-thirds of pupils are likely to fail it when it is introduced.

So what does this tell us when we consider the large number of children who continue to need extra support with their reading and end up leaving school without the literacy skills they need on entering the world of work?

The simple truth is that, despite the big government push for all schools to teach phonics, only a minority (about 27% according to the DfE) appear to be teaching it systematically. The majority of schools, although using phonics, continue to use it as part of a mix of methods alongside picture clues and memorising spellings.

Until this changes, and teachers put faith in teaching phonics first and fast, without confusing children by mixing it in with distractions, reading standards will not be improved.

More information can be found on the DfE website here

abc PocketPhonics app

I had the opportunity recently to review a phonics product called PocketPhonics, and I have to say I was impressed.

PocketPhonics is an educational app that works with both the iPhone and iPad and is designed to teach children:

• letter sounds
• how to write letters
• how to blend letter sounds together to read simple words

The app mainly covers the 'simple alphabetic code' (the most common spelling for each of the 44 phonemes or letter sounds) plus a few alternative spelling variations:

s, a, t, p, i, n

m, d, g, o, c, k

ck, e, u, r, h, b

f, ff, l, ll, ss, j

v, w, x, y, z, zz

qu, ch, sh, th, th, ng

ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, oo

ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear

air, ure, er, ou, ue, ay

ou, wh, ir, ph, ie, ew

ea, aw, oe, au

What is really clever about this app, is that the parent / teacher can set the level so that the child can progress through the sounds at their own individual pace. The word games they play are based on the sounds they have already learnt.

The sounds are very pure and there are various fonts and writing styles to choose from (including upper and lower case letters).

There is also a free guide that can be requested that explains very clearly why children should learn to read with synthetic phonics.

A lot of research and thought has gone into producing PocketPhonics - if you are looking for a way to help your child learn their letter sounds in a fun and engaging way (and you happen to own either an iPhone or an iPad) then I think this is a great app to go for.

This video gives more information - note that the sounds are given using the American English accent - a British English option is also available on the app.

New phonics reading test for six-year-olds

The government has announced plans to introduce a phonics progress test in all schools throughout England for children in Year 1. A pilot will take place in 2011, with the aim of rolling it out nationally in the summer of 2012.

The purpose will be to identify those children who have gaps in their knowledge of letter-sounds and difficulties with blending them to read words. It will therefore enable the school to target those in need of extra support.

The proposed test will include ‘non-words’ so that children will have to decode the word to read it, rather than relying on their visual memory of known whole words or using clues such as pictures or context to guess the words.

Inevitably, this has already led to criticism from anti-phonics lobbyists, who believe that phonics should be taught alongside other methods, rather than on its own - they argue that it will not test other reading skills such as overall vocabulary or comprehension of what they are reading.

Yes – these critics are correct – it will only test whether the child has reached the required level of phonics decoding – that is the point. Once children can decode properly with phonics early on, they can then move on to higher order reading skills.

Currently, one in six 7-year-olds and one in five 11-year-olds still fail to reach the standard expected of them in reading. Some time ago I read this analogy that sums this up very well:

‘There is an education bus and it stops to pick up passengers all the way to Year Three. After this, the bus accelerates and it gets much more difficult to get on. Unfortunately, many children never manage to get a seat on this bus and get left behind, unable to access the school curriculum properly.’

I think this new test could be an important bus stop to help make sure all our young children get a seat on that bus.

More information on the proposed test can be found on the Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) website and the DfE website.

Floppy's Phonics Sounds and Letters

Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters is a brand new synthetic phonics teaching programme that is being launched in January by Oxford University Press.

It is completely matched to Letters and Sounds, which is now used by many schools throughout the UK.

The new programme will provide teachers with all the resources needed to teach Letters and Sounds, including Handbooks, Activity Sheets, Assessment records, Alphabet Code Chart, Flashcards, Frieze and interactive CD-ROMs.

The Sounds and Letters books are not storybooks. They introduce and revise each set of sounds in the context of Oxford Reading Tree scenes.

The new programme has been devised by Debbie Hepplewhite, which is why I am confident about the quality of the content of these resources. Debbie has campaigned over many years for the introduction of synthetic phonics teaching for all children and has offered advice and expertise to many during that time.

Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters will be available to buy on our website as soon as it is published. Details can be found here

Sonic Phonics Software CD-ROM

Sonic Phonics Software is the most recent addition to our range of phonics resources.

If you are looking for an interactive tool for teaching all the letter sounds in a simple, non-cluttered way, then this CD-ROM, designed in conjunction with early years specialists, is a great option.

The software is very simple to use. The letters and digraphs are organised into levels so pupils can learn letter sounds and how to blend sounds into simple words, progressing at their own pace (the order follows the 'Letters and Sounds' programme).

The CD-ROM teaches all the letter sounds, which are spoken in a very 'pure' way - so important when it comes to blending sounds into words. More difficult levels explicitly teach letters that can make more than one sound and sounds that can be written in different ways.

There is also a video option - the chosen letter or word can be presented as a video clip of a mouth moving and pronouncing the letters, so this is particularly useful for those with a hearing difficulty or with English as a second language.

This great value CD-ROM is ideal for:

* parents / carers to use at home

* teachers (and teaching assistants) to use in the classroom

* student teachers

* tutors (of children or adults)

* speech therapists

Visit our website here for details of how to buy this software as either a Single User version or Site Licence for schools.

Michael Gove – Secretary of State for Education

Michael Gove has been appointed by David Cameron as 'Secretary of state for Education' in the new Cabinet.

Why do I think this is important? This is Michael Gove’s answer to a recent question as to what he saw as one of the main priorities for early years teaching:

“The central priority for the first years of primary schooling must be learning to read. Unless children have learned to read, they can't read to learn. Which is why we will improve teacher training to provide authoritative instruction in the implementation of systematic synthetic phonics. The most detailed academic studies – in Clackmannanshire and West Dunbartonshire – show that in these two relatively disadvantaged Scottish local authorities, systematic synthetic phonics teaching effectively eliminated illiteracy. So we will do everything we can to support teachers in getting reading right so that children can then go on to enjoy a broad, balanced and wide-ranging curriculum”. (The Guardian March 2010).

All those who are passionate about teaching children to read with Synthetic Phonics will be hoping that this new appointment will lead to a guaranteed whole school approach to teaching in this way.

Logically, this will also hopefully mean a re-think of the way that millions are spent on Reading Recovery intervention for struggling readers. Although this programme does include phonics, it is a mixed method approach that is at odds with good synthetic phonics teaching. It is true that there are many success stories, but that is not surprising given the intensive one-to-one tuition received by the children. If that same one-to-one time could be spent on additional phonics catch-up, I believe the results would undoubtedly be much better for a fraction of the cost.

Michael Gove has vowed to eliminate illiteracy in schools in England by the time he leaves office – I wish him every success.

Usborne Very First Reading Series

I have been debating the merits of a shiny new series that is due to be published by Usborne this month called 'Very First Reading'.

It is a series of 15 books, based on synthetic phonics, that has been developed to tie in with the Letters and Sounds programme now being used in many primary schools.

In the first seven books, the adult and child take turns to read - the text that the child reads is decodable, based on the sounds they will have learnt. From book 8, the child reads the whole story, with the adult providing help when needed.

On the face of it, this series sounds great - we all know that Usborne publish excellent quality books with lovely illustrations. I do, however, have one or two concerns about the series.

Firstly, the cost - at £4.99 a book, this makes the series unaffordable for many.

Secondly, when children are learning to read, they need a lot of practice at each level, and should only be asked to read text containing sounds they have been taught. There is only one book for each set of sounds, and if these are to be used in a serious way to support reading, parents would have to know exactly which sounds are known, and when to introduce the next book.

Thirdly, I am not convinced that when a young child is having a lovely story read to them, they will be interested in stopping to read their bit (which can be a painfully slow process when at the initial stage of blending).

I would be very interested to hear feedback from anyone using the series once it is published.

If you are interested in learning more about the Very First Reading series, you might like to watch this YouTube video of Peter Usborne - it has some interesting information about how and why children learn to read with phonics, and how decodable books are written:

High Frequency Words & Tricky Words

High Frequency Words (HFWs) are the words that appear most often in printed materials.

Schools used to expect children to learn 45 HFWs by the end of their first year of school. These have now been replaced by a list of 100 most common words that are taught during Reception Year and Year 1:

1	the	21	that	41	not	61	look	81	put
2	and	22	with	42	then	62	don’t	82	could
3	a	23	all	43	were	63	come	83	house
4	to	24	we	44	go	64	will	84	old
5	said	25	can	45	little	65	into	85	too
6	in	26	are	46	as	66	back	86	by
7	he	27	up	47	no	67	from	87	day
8	I	28	had	48	mum	68	children	88	made
9	of	29	my	49	one	69	him	89	time
10	it	30	her	50	them	70	Mr	90	I’m
11	was	31	what	51	do	71	get	91	if
12	you	32	there	52	me	72	just	92	help
13	they	33	out	53	down	73	now	93	Mrs
14	on	34	this	54	dad	74	came	94	called
15	she	35	have	55	big	75	oh	95	here
16	is	36	went	56	when	76	about	96	off
17	for	37	be	57	It’s	77	got	97	asked
18	at	38	like	58	see	78	their	98	saw
19	his	39	some	59	looked	79	people	99	make
20	but	40	so	60	very	80	your	100	an

The problem is that many of these common words have complex spellings, so that children will not be able to read them in the early stages of reading by using their phonic decoding skills learnt, so they have to learn them by heart.

Tricky words
A ‘tricky’ word either contains letters (or letter combinations) that the child has not yet been taught (and will become fully decodable for them later on) or contains an irregular part that does not follow phonic rules (such as ‘here’, does’, ‘one’). Children do have to learn these words, but even with these words, an understanding of letter sounds helps, as it is only part of the word that is irregular.

A lot of words that are said to be 'irregular', or 'not decodable' are in fact perfectly decodable - they just have to be introduced at an appropriate stage. The majority of HFWs do follow decoding rules and can be sounded out once children have knowledge of how the sounds are represented in alternative ways.

Reading schemes such as the Oxford Reading Tree (Biff, Chip and Kipper stories) are written deliberately to include and 'learn' the HFWs. Good decodable reading schemes keep the HFWs to an absolute minimum in the early stages, giving children a chance to practise their blending skills using the sounds they have been taught.

If your child is following a good synthetic phonics programme, you will be very pleased to hear that they should not be bringing home lists of random, complex words that need to be learned by memory – a nightmare for both children and their parents! This is because phonic skills are established with regular words before trickier words are introduced slowly and systematically. These skills allow them to READ any word they come across (and understand it if it is in their spoken vocabulary).

“Of course English is not a simple phonetic

language, it’s very complex – that’s the problem –

but it does have a code. It has to be taught step by

step, gradually adding the irregularities. English has

a million words and you can’t teach them all one by

one” (Ruth Miskin).