Prof. Rhona Johnston: 'Our Clackmannanshire study has shown that children learning to read by the synthetic phonics approach have better word reading and reading comprehension skills by the end of primary school, with fewer lower achievers, than children learning by analytic phonics. We have also found that over an 18-weeks period, a reception class taught synthetic phonics learnt to read better and needed 30 hours less tuition than a class taught by analytic phonics. We conclude from this that synthetic phonics is more economical in terms of time and resources than the analytic phonics approach'.
Marj Newbury: Having recently been advised to make more 'non-judgemental' observations of her reception class pupils', Marj Newbury, from inner city Bradford, contemplates why and what for!
Dr. Marlynne Grant: She has first hand experience of children who have been failed by poor literacy teaching. Her research shows how the structured teaching of key skills can prevent illiteracy with its wasted opportunities. She will report on her results which have been collected from whole classes of Reception pupils and on her longitudinal study which followed children to the end of their primary education.
MP Nick Gibb: His talk will be on the campaign to ensure that synthetic phonics is used in schools.
Lorna Jackson & Leah Marshall
“Miss I want to be able to read Harry Potter” Year 5 child, 2003.
We were doing every government initiative and requirement to teach our pupils reading and writing, yet, for a significant number it wasn’t working. In the summer of 2003 we started our journey in pursuit of an answer and discovered Read Write Inc (formally rml). As they say, ‘the rest is history!’
Find out how we raised our standards from 50% to 90% plus.
Jim Curran:
I began my teaching career in the Secondary Sector in 1975. As time went by I became aware that more and more of my pupils had huge problems with reading. It became clear to me that the single biggest factor preventing progress was poor literacy skills.
At that time there was a general perception among Secondary teachers that most of these children hadn’t learned to read because they were just that bit slower and that learning to read was somehow beyond them.
Somehow these ideas didn’t ring right for me. Many of these children were bright and articulate. I began to look for answers but the only advice available was Whole Language advice. I tried all of their strategies, Pause – Prompt and Praise, Paired Reading, Language Experience – but nothing was working.
Continuing my search I began a five year course in psychology with the OU and then proceeded to do an MSc in Developmental and Educational Psychology (The professional training for Educational Psychologists) but, believe it or not, I was no further forward. Well meaning and helpful as all my tutors were, they themselves had been trained in an era when whole language ruled supreme and all I got was more of the same.
In the summer of 1998 serendipity changed my life and that of my students. My newsagents had sold out of the Independent (my newspaper of choice) and so I bought the Daily Telegraph which happened to review a book ‘Why Children Can’t Read - and what we can do about it’ by Professor Diane McGuinness.
I ordered a copy and spent the next few weeks reading through it. For me the experience was amazing – a real ‘Road to Damascus’ moment. There was a fax number at the back of the book for anyone who wanted to know more. I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity....
Katie Ivens:
Katie Ivens will describe how the Butterfly Saturday Reading School, of which she is co-founder and Education Director, works to limit the waste of young lives caused by poor literacy in a 'multiply deprived inner city neighbourhood. It's all down to teaching reading systematically with Irina Tyk's Butterfly Book.....
