Primary Education: Time for a Rethink?

The rejection of high-quality, knowledge-based education began its latest reincarnation in the late 1960s with the publication of the Plowden Report and the shift to discovery-based learning. The damage to the most disadvantaged students – especially in the North of England – was particularly stark.

Three calamitous decades later, knowledge-based teaching staged a recovery. But since its rebirth, multiple problems have blighted progress. Large numbers of academics still take little responsibility for the damage to children’s life-chances and continue to push their ‘child-centered’ instruction during teacher training, including balanced literacy and exploratory maths.

‘What happens in schools has implications for many decades… outcomes like low literacy & numeracy levels as workforce challenges should be a call to action in education facilities, schools, and policy think-tanks alike.’ @PamelaSnow2, Twitter.

A problem thus confronts education. Many young teachers, confused by mixed methods and inappropriate basic maths instruction, lack the clear direction for teaching literacy and numeracy. New directives, time-consuming changes, excessive data collection and a toxic mix of competing ideologies wear down school leaders and encroach on their home lives. Teachers are left with neither the time nor the space to fully investigate, study or organise ‘how children learn’. Frequently rushed DfE changes contribute to the excessive workload. And public humiliation caused by an arbitrary and punishing accountability system leaves the teaching profession in a parlous state. Teachers exit in their droves.

‘Teacher recruitment last year was the worst ever in terms of meeting targets. This year it’s looking even worse. Schools posted ads for over 81k vacancies last year, a 59% increase in 2018/19, and it’s on track to be higher this year’ Sam Freedman, Substack.

On top of this, the effects of Covid will scar generations. ‘What’s not really talked about is teacher absence through burnout, workload, mental health issues, ill health, Long Covid. When schools are being held to account, especially over results, will this be considered? I think the impact of this is significant across the sector. The goalposts have really shifted with the pandemic. People are really struggling in a way like never before.’ – Sam Strickland @Strickomaster.

In addition to the above stresses, schools must plan for an increasingly tight budget in the face of a tsunami of rising costs.

Over the last few years, many primary schools have slashed play-time, sports, arts, crafts, music, drama, cookery and other curriculum ‘non-essentials’. School librarians and libraries, where still in existence, are tempted frequently to fill their shelves with ‘pile-’em-high’ budget-priced books at the expense of high-quality children’s literature and non-fiction. And across the UK, public libraries are now an endangered species.

‘The levels of teacher stress, with many teachers leaving teaching after just a few years, and increasing numbers of children with special needs. Then there’s the question of funding inequity, leaking roofs, lack of evidence-informed training, constant directives from the DfE, the devastating effect Covid has had on children’s mental health.’ – Laura McInerney @miss_mcinerney.

In lieu of tinkering with the curriculum yet again, a radical review of school structure is surely long overdue. Implemented with care, volunteers could result in schools offering a rounded education, neighbourhood cohesion, parental engagement and teacher and child well-being.

A four-day streamlined, largely ‘Academic Curriculum’, with the main emphasis on literacy and basic mathematics, followed by ‘Community Friday’ is worth consideration. Fridays could then focus on Arts, Crafts, Sports and specific interests, led by volunteers. Any plan would need to embrace a ‘bottom up’ collaboration, rooted in a strong ethos of volunteering with increasing numbers of early retirees and other volunteers bringing a rich diversity of talent to schools.

This is a country full of generous volunteers doing essential work. Not so long ago, people willingly gave their time to stand in windy car parks or in unprepossessing buildings to ensure a smooth-running Covid roll-out. Volunteers, too, came forward in their thousands to take part in a vaccine trial that ultimately saved over a million lives. These form part of the vast army of unsung heroes providing essential support across many areas of society. Only needing half the teachers each Friday would grant them alternating four-day weeks, the benefits of which are becoming increasingly apparent.

Community involvement would also be a powerful conduit for uniting school and community, affecting every aspect of curriculum, fundraising and school ethos, inspiring savings for Special Needs, Speech Therapists, Early Years teacher and parent training, for example. A more traditional approach to literacy, numeracy and discipline, together with increased use of high quality non-fiction books to augment an essential knowledge base, would finally give veracity to the slogan ‘no child left behind’.

‘I have a feeling that the stuff about curriculum is mostly a wish list in cloud cuckoo land – someone needs to think about what is manageable, doable and reasonable for 22,000 primary schools’ – @PieCorbett, Twitter.

Since KPMG’s reports on the cost of poor literacy and numeracy, amounting to billions of pounds per year, many new ill-conceived initiatives have been spawned. Without a commitment to hold educational establishments to account, these initiatives continue to escalate. The damage to the fabric of the country – and to the children and adults affected – is massively corrosive.

Some schools are already considering a scaled-down primary curriculum. As Edward Booth (@edwardbooth) states in Mary Myatt and John Tomsett’s book ‘Primary Huh’:

‘We want pupils to know fewer things in greater depth rather than just a lot of material at surface level.’

And finally, ‘Until a school gets on top of behaviour, nothing else is possible.’ – @tombennett71, Twitter.

Why delay extended reading?

Decodable books are an invaluable resource for beginner readers. But following Reception and Year 1, there is a case for most children to be untethered from their decodable readers. The restricted language and vocabulary so helpful for beginners can ultimately limit deeper elements of reading. In an essay ‘deep reading can be learned’, Maryanne Wolf writes, ‘What is at stake are empathy, imagination and critical thinking, namely those dimensions that define and are typical of the so-called “deep reading”.’

By the time of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, most children have the ability to self-teach, and many six-year-olds are capable of reading longer stories. Decades ago, children actually read far more words with books including Enid Blyton’s hugely popular (if problematic) Famous Five series, thereby honing their reading skills and stamina with stories of 20,000 words or more (largely limited to the most common 80-100 correspondences). Such books encouraged a habit of fluency and sustained reading, paved the way for richer reading and introduced children to layer upon layer of word meaning.

Christopher Such, author of The Art & Science of Teaching Primary Reading, notes: ‘beyond the development of relatively fluent word recognition – our ability to comprehend what we read is based on everything we know about our world and our language, alongside an additional layer of knowledge related to written text conventions (e.g. punctuation, sub-headings, italics, etc)’.

https://primarycolour.home.blog/2022/02/25/whats-stopping-us-from-teaching-reading-comprehension-really-well/

In other words, ‘developing pupils’ spoken language and their knowledge of the world is key to fostering their ability to read. Building meaning from words is also supported by some knowledge that is unique to written language, including knowledge of how words are presented within texts.’

https://primarycolour.home.blog/ The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading in 500 words.

‘Books are the places where we can suspend reality and instead explore our imagination’s more tolerable, more beautiful promise of possibility. We can do this.’ – Maryanne Wolf.

Perhaps it is the profoundly damaging effects of the Reading Wars that has resulted in widespread caution about abandoning decodables’ ‘training wheels’. Could this reluctance to leave decodables behind be one of the reasons that many children fail become fully functional readers by the time they leave primary school – a failure that exists even after significant progress in early reading?

In a seminal paper on the teaching of reading, Professors Anne Castles, Kate Nation and Kathy Rastle propose a change of emphasis in their paper ‘Ceasefire in the Reading Wars’.

1. Why phonics has to be the first step

2. The importance of morphemes and morphology

3. Reading experience counts

4. Teaching the means to create meaning

5. Time for a truce

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1529100618772271

As well as encouraging Year 2s to progress to richer texts, there will always be a significant minority of children who haven’t managed to acquire stable foundations. Even after two years of intensive synthetic phonics, some children still need further practice at the foundational level. Bite-sized introduction of material, clear, short instructions – alongside endless patience and empathy – all can be achieved with a minimum of oversight via a TA, responsible volunteer, parent, grandparent, or carer, enabling pupils to keep abreast of their peers. This is a vital duty, if we’re not to consign children to mental distress and limited life chances. Ideally, additional practice for struggling readers should have been in place as soon as possible, once formal Synthetic Phonics has begun. Signs of struggle begin as early as that.

Taming the Squiggles

Beginning Reading Instruction: BRI offers lively decodable stories for young children. Pupils are immediately introduced to carefully-structured stories as they begin to understand ‘how reading works’ while simultaneously practising the foundational skills of blending and segmenting.

The BRI programme was developed with phenomenal attention to detail and exhaustively trialled by a distinguished team of linguists, educational psychologists and children’s writers. Its meticulous structure fosters confidence; within an hour of starting Level 1 virtually all children can proudly announce “I can read a story!”

The first BRI tales consist of just 3 words and 5 sounds, creating the conditions where learning to read is as simple as humanly possible. A minimum of text manages to carry a story with a wealth of detail, with the assistance of lively, cartoon-like illustrations designed to enhance but never distract or facilitate guessing. Alongside the optional questions, the narratives lend themselves to a range of conversations about the animals’ characteristics, their adventures and skirmishes. There’s boastful Sam the Lion, larger than life and full of fun and his inquisitive little pal, Mat the Rat, hyperactive, mischievous, and a bit of a tease. Vain Nell, lugubrious Sid, and other endearing characters slowly make their entrance, immersing children in the wonders of fiction.

This rich environment fulfils many functions vital to early years development. In tandem with storytelling, underpinned by the uncompromising focus on decoding, specific aspects of speech and language development encourage all-round language skills. The questions What? Why? Where? Who? and the prepositions under, over, on, behind, for example, help develop an understanding of our language as the stories unfold.

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds particularly benefit from BRI’s evidence-informed word choice, abundance of practice and varied repetition. All learners, including those with poor language skills, are given a strategy that enables them to tackle any word, however unfamiliar, while simultaneously encouraging expressive language. The programme also enables fast-track readers to transfer to a wide range of children’s literature as rapidly as possible.

Above all, BRI is the simplest, most straightforward path to transform beginner into bookworm. With a minimum of preparation or additional materials and little (if any) photocopying, BRI ‘does what it says on the tin’; it enables children to transform the squiggles on the page into gateways to magical worlds.

The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading… in 500 words

https://primarycolour.home.blog/2022/07/26/500-words/

Reprinted with kind permission of Christopher Such @Suchmo83 (author of The Art of Teaching Primary Reading)

https://amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1529764165/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid

‘Reading is one of the most valuable capabilities that a person can acquire. Every other capability of equal or greater value, such as walking or talking, comes relatively instinctively. In contrast, we have not evolved to be readers. Learning to read is a singular challenge that demands expertise from teachers and school leaders. Thankfully, reading development has been studied for decades. The accumulated evidence, informed by professional experience, can guide us in our aim to give every pupil the best chance of becoming a capable, confident reader…

Reading is the comprehension of visual symbols that represent spoken language. To do this, pupils must develop two capacities that become increasingly integrated as expertise develops – (1) recognising words, and (2) building meaning from those words:

1. To recognise words on a page, pupils must learn to associate the sounds of our language with visual symbols. (The sounds represented are the smallest chunks of spoken sound that we can categorise, called phonemes. The visual symbols representing these phonemes are letters of the alphabet operating individually or in groups.) Explicit teaching can help pupils to learn these associations and how to use them. This is called phonics. Over time, pupils also associate these visual symbols with units of meaning directly. (Words can be thought of as composed of chunks of meaning, called morphemes.) Due to the complexity of our writing system, lots of reading is required for pupils to learn these associations between visual symbols, sound and meaning.
2. Building meaning from written words uses mostly the same knowledge that is used to build meaning from spoken language: knowledge of concepts that words represent and knowledge of how words interact with each other. This means that developing pupils’ spoken language and their knowledge of the world is key to fostering their ability to read. Building meaning from words is also supported by some knowledge that is unique to written language, specifically knowledge of how words are presented and organised within texts.

As pupils become more expert at recognising words and building meaning from them, their reading begins to flow. Pupils can reinforce this important sense of fluency through text experience and through rehearsed reading aloud.

Teaching comprehension involves the provision of fascinating, challenging experiences with texts that have been chosen for the breadth and relevance of their content. It also involves awakening pupils to the active, personal nature of comprehension through explanation, modelling and rich discussion.

Pupils learn aspects of reading at different rates. While the same principles apply to all developing readers, struggling readers require targeted teaching that is sensitive to their specific needs, motivation and self-efficacy.

The relationships between teachers, pupils and books are central to the promotion of pupils’ independent reading. Reading aloud to pupils is both a necessity and a privilege.

There are various ways to organise reading instruction. If you keep in mind the ideas outlined above as you construct, implement and evaluate your reading curriculum, then you are likely to give pupils the best chance of becoming capable, confident readers.’

(‘Reading Matters’ notes: All Systematic Synthetic Phonics programmes are based on evidence-informed instruction with individual programmes subject to strengths and drawbacks. Strengths include understanding the Alphabetic Code and ‘how reading works’, meticulous sound-letter/s sequencing, and thorough practice of segmenting and blending. Drawbacks may include overall cost, preparation time, complexity of delivery, and delayed emphasis on breadth and depth of reading. BRI: Beginning Reading Instruction, a unique story-led SSP programme, addresses the drawbacks by eschewing the disjuncture between rigorous foundational skills and language development/literacy, by teaching directly through its carefully calibrated stories. The result is a seamless progress towards independent reading.)

In Praise of Volunteers

In the last few years, there has been a marked improvement in teachers’ understanding of ‘how reading works’. Yet in spite of the billions spent on evidence-informed instruction, thousands of children each year still fall beneath the radar. TAs can be stretched to the limit so why, I wonder, aren’t more volunteers encouraged to come to the rescue? It takes around an hour for volunteers to be briefed on the basic ground rules – the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of Systematic Synthetic Phonics – plus an occasional check from the class teacher, for children needing additional practice in securing foundational skills. Volunteers, aided by the brief instructions accompanying carefully calibrated decodable stories, are eminently capable of delivering this additional help.

A number of well-meaning volunteering reading organisations exist, but many emanate from top-down organisations, often replicating fossilised methods that caused reading mayhem in the first place. Undoubtedly additional support provided by organisations works for some children – but ignorance of the subtle differences between learning to read using a word-limited ‘transparent’ code and careful introduction of the multi-layered Advanced Code compounds children’s difficulties.

We generally aren’t tapping into the good-will and talents of volunteers here in the UK to embrace the school environment. Yet this is a country full of generous volunteers doing essential work to help those in need. Not long ago, volunteers willingly gave their time to stand in windy car parks or in unprepossessing buildings to ensure a smooth-running Covid vaccination roll-out. Volunteers, too, came forward in their thousands to take part in a vaccine trial that ultimately saved over a million lives. There are vast armies of unsung heroes providing essential support across so many areas of society. But where are schools actively reaching out for volunteers to provide appropriate help for their struggling readers? The profoundly shocking statistic of c.17-20% children lacking adequate reading skills by the end of primary school should be the responsibility of all of us.

In the States, things are different. Thousands of volunteer organisations are creatively embracing the challenge of ensuring that all children learn to read, underscored by a powerful awareness that literacy is a human right. Marion Waldman, based in Albany, New York, founded TMKTR (http://www.teachmykidtoread.com) a community literacy project based in public and school libraries using both knowledge-based and creative ways to encourage parents and caregivers to learn about literacy. Tre Hadrick (https://linktr.ee/mrlitedu) of Norristown, Pennsylvania, advocates teaching children to read by encouraging them in the most unexpected of settings – his neighbourhood barber shop. He has organised a display of decodable readers that encourage emergent readers to follow a simple routine – sound by sound – to lift words from the page to read a story accurately. Older children are also inspired by the abundance of carefully-chosen decodable books demonstrating that they CAN read. And all over America there are advocates/authors such as Faith Borkowsky (http://www.highfiveliteracy.com) advocating tirelessly and sharing their knowledge with parents and church groups, hungry for evidence-based information, who then use their newly-acquired expertise to hold schools to account. Her website http://www.ifonlybooks.com demonstrates just how much an influential activist for reading justice can achieve.

In UK schools, children receive foundational SSP daily sessions, but this isn’t sufficient to stop some of them falling further and further behind. Some receive additional help, often at great cost. Yet by far the simplest, most time- and cost-effective way to provide this is through volunteers using carefully-paced and sequenced decodable stories based on ‘how children learn’.

In Praise of School Volunteers

At the start of the 2000s I found myself twice-weekly tutoring struggling readers at a small village school. Year 3 children were coming out of the woodwork unable to read – ‘and they aren’t dyslexic’ the head had observed. This school, with a largely middle-class intake and a few children from social housing, contained a disproportionate number of pupils unable to read. Their reading instruction, like that of other schools at the time, was shot through with balanced literacy topped up by a confusing medley of ‘fun’ activities.

Why, I wondered, aren’t more volunteers welcomed into schools to help with struggling readers? It takes less than an hour to give people a basic grounding in the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of SSP instruction; many schools, in any case, offer reading advice to parents. After all, the NHS arranged for whole armies of volunteers to stand in windy car parks and unprepossessing buildings to direct us millions and ensure that Coronavirus vaccinations were as smooth and speedy as possible. Such communal and disinterested acts of help have been widely celebrated. Yet this type of volunteering has largely vanished from many schools.

Why has a solution not been found to encourage volunteers to help those children who desperately need extra time and practice to hone their fragile reading skills? Surely there are home-based parents, pensioners, grandparents who would welcome the opportunity to play a communal part in the drive to literacy post-lockdown?

I keep thinking of the US volunteer parent whose work with struggling readers made a significant difference to the literacy progress of a number of children. Shay, originally trained as a US secondary teacher, had temporarily removed her struggling youngest child from school to teach him to read. The following year, inspired by a volunteer grandmother, she too volunteered and was allocated sixteen struggling readers, most for just a 15-minute weekly session. From time to time, she sought advice from the parents and teachers who formed the Yahoo Beginning Reading Instruction message board and reported on progress.

After two or three years Shay returned to full-time teaching, this time with special needs older pupils. Some four years later she posted this update about one of her earlier successes, Suzie. This was a particularly vulnerable child with many problems, including  global learning difficulties, with a non-reading mother unable to help. When Suzie’s mother tragically died, Shay was giving her two sessions a week and a little extra sneaked-in help.  Four years later she wrote about her much-cherished learner:

I have changed Suzie’s life and she is functionally literate (and getting better EVERY day), but I am simply “done” with the educational establishment. She is happy, chatty, and would you believe…I have to discipline her the most for her talking!!!  This is the child who cried every day in 1st grade. She is becoming a gymnast and she literally flips and tumbles into my room every chance she can get. She is beautiful, thriving, and most of all…thanks to BRI early…she can read and function.  She cannot pick up and read just anything, though…everything must still be taught and practiced in tiny bits (a necessity with her, and the others). This is the hardest part of my decision…leaving these kids, because they are not done.

Instructional design is the key for these kids. Lack of effective design, I am convinced, is the leading problem in our schools. Yet, my admin wants us to “hook them in” and become “student led” and let them “listen to their iPods” while they work.

What is striking is that Shay, a mere volunteer at the time, was able to help so many children under challenging, crowded conditions and severe time constraints. The invaluable support she received from the Yahoo BRI group included the recommendation to read Diane McGuinness’s seminal work, ‘Why Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It’. Even the schools’ Reading Recovery teacher was impressed by the successful outcomes. Tragically, like so many, the school was wedded to a progressive agenda and failed to change its ways.

Children in the UK are now receiving their Government-mandated foundational SSP daily sessions, and are for the moment getting extra help – at great cost – but children also need patient, sympathetic volunteers to give them the additional practice that can make the difference between literacy and illiteracy.

Closing the Gap in Reading

Long-Term effects of using a phonics-based programme in Kindergarten

With kind permission of Elizabeth Brown, Director of 40L, originally published on LinkedIn.

My 22 years teaching reading to hundreds of students has given me a great deal of anecdotal research that shows gaps closing for my minority inner city students. The shocking infographic from the New York Times “Money, Race and Success” article showing as much as a 6-year gap for minority students prompted me to re-examine the research for hard evidence.[1] My search led me to a study that took me full circle back to the mid 1970s when I was in Kindergarten. My elementary school was a solidly working class neighborhood, one of the 15% of the low SES schools in the nation that used a phonics series called “I See Sam” [Beginning Reading Instruction: BRI] as part of a government study.[2]

The program took 20 to 30 minutes daily and required 25 weeks to complete. The study found that disadvantaged children were ready to read in K but required a “slight increase in the instructional time to complete the first several units of the program.” They were fun little books, and very effective. My classmates and I all became good readers.

The study looked at the students 12 years later, when they were high school seniors. It looked at thousands of students at high schools comprised of students from several different elementary schools; the high schools contained some elementary schools that had used the program and some that had not. According to the study:

“Not only did the disadvantaged groups benefit from the kindergarten reading instruction, but so did the advantaged groups. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that, collectively, the high school seniors who participated in the kindergarten reading program had a lower social class rating than those who did not. Thus, in spite of an overall lower social class level, the students who received the kindergarten reading program still outperformed the higher social class students who did not. It is only in rare circumstances where a group with a lower social class rating outperforms one with a higher social class rating on a norm-referenced test of reading achievement. Further, the fact that these differences can be linked to an educational intervention makes them even more extraordinary.”[3]

This graph below shows the reduction in Illiteracy rates by Socioeconomic Status, the data come directly from the study. 

The graph below shows the reduction in illiteracy rates by race. Again, the data come directly from the study.

How did a method this powerful for all students, but especially such a powerfully gap-closing program, get ignored? First, the study does not explain how well designed and how phonics oriented the method was. In fact, the title of the study is “Learning to Read in Kindergarten.” At the time, reading was commonly taught in first grade, and was commonly taught with whole word methods. Now, reading is commonly taught in kindergarten, but the gap has not closed, most likely because the gap-closing methods are based on sounds and current methods focus on meaning. Current methods include some phonics but start with sight words and focus on reading comprehension and meaning, not decoding. Emily Hanford explains why current methods fail students in her article, “At a Loss for Words.”[4]

The kindergarten reading program [BRI] that closed the gap is a sound phonics series, almost 100% decodable with no list of sight words. It is linguistically very well designed to prevent guessing and gradually builds up decoding skills. 

[However], the wrong lesson was drawn from the study as focus was on the timing, not the method.

1. Money, Race and Success: How Your School District Compares – The New York Times (nytimes.com)   Rich, Motoko, Cox Amanda, and Block, Matthey, “Money Race and Success: How Your School District compares,”

2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/748204?seq=1  Reading Research Quarterly Vol. 30, No 4 Hanson, Ralph A. and Farrell, Donna. “The long-term effects on high school seniors of learning to read in kindergarten.”

3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/748204?seq=1 Hanson, Ralph A. and Farrell, Donna. p. 928.

4. https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading.   At a Loss for Words.  Emily Hanford

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No Child, However Impaired, Should Be Written Off

Ottakee’s short reports on her two adopted daughters appeared over a number of years on the informal Yahoo BRI: Beginning Reading Instruction forum. Dick Schutz, Director of the prestigious SWRL (Development, Southwest Regional Laboratory for Educational Research and Development) was the first to suggest the mapping of the Alphabetic Code. Together with a team of educational psychologists and psychometricians, children’s authors and teachers, he trialled and developed the BRI programme over a number of years, mainly in deprived schools in southwest America. Cunningly crafted stories (think Dr Seuss with far less room for manoeuvre) balance limited language with prosody and ‘practice, practice, practice’. The ease of BRI instruction is appreciated by teachers and children alike, and is especially effective for those with special educational needs. Ottakee had tried around seven programmes without success before her children learned to read. Here is her breakdown of the stats of her then 14-year-old daughter in one of her reports on the Yahoo forum:

‘They just did the Woodcock Johnson test with her. Her overall IQ score came out as 35 (with 100 being average) – so severely impaired. This is an age equivalency of 5 years, 5 months – or like most kids starting K[indergarten]. Her cognitive efficiency as 4 years, 11 months – so still a preschool level. her working memory was less than 4 years old – so very severely impaired.

Now, for the GOOD part. She scored 9 years, 6 months or 4th grade for sound blending, 8 years or end of second grade for word identification, 7 years, 3 months for reading fluency (2nd grade), 7 years, 8 months for spelling (end of 2nd grade), and end of 1st/early 2nd grade for passage comprehension, applied problems and writing samples.

Her phonemic awareness was 66 while her working memory was 15 (over 3 standard deviations from her average).

To me, this shows that BRI can and DOES work with kids with severe LDs and cognitive impairments. Her profile, with scores ranging from 36-87 (with 85-115 being normal for her age) this shows that she has a cognitive impairment as well as some significant learning disabilities. Thanks to BRI, her reading and spelling skills tested 20-30 points above her average IQ level.

They were at first going to put her in the SXI classroom where the severely mentally impaired kids attend – these are kids that are mostly non or very limited verbally, non readers, very basic functional skills, etc. Now they said she is the top reader in her special education room.’

An exploration of how schools with significant numbers of disadvantaged children achieve high literacy results – FINAL UPDATE

DfE COMPARE SCHOOLS PERFORMANCE 2017, 2018, 2019 SATs 2 Reading

With a few exceptions, the list below is limited to top performing schools in deprived areas of England, selected from the 100 best performing schools in Year 6. When phonic foundations are secure, combined with a strong book culture, schools with deprived intake often compare very favourably with those with a largely middle-class intake. Minimum reading score in 2019 is set at 110 (the average score for the 20,000+ primary schools is 104). Selection has been limited to schools with a minimum of 20 pupils in Year 6. There are also very large schools in deprived areas gaining impressive results, e.g. Elmhurst, Newham (Read Write Inc) with over 1000 pupils and 30+ first languages, that fall just below the arbitrary cut off score of 110.

Nearly all schools listed use one of three synthetic phonics programmes – Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. Two have chosen controversial teaching approaches; although occasionally effective there is overwhelming evidence-based research – including the fall in literacy rates in the US and NZ – that failure is a far more common outcome than reading success for Reading Recovery. It contravenes Synthetic Phonics instruction and is extremely expensive. However, the headquarters of Reading Recovery are based at the Institute of Education; until that anomaly is confronted head-on, young students will continue to be trained by means of this largely Whole Language approach. It is a major contributor in the US to the ‘fourth grade slump’. Discovery Learning – ‘holistic’ and progressive methods of teaching – has also been the choice of one school. It can, in rare cases, be successful but needs to be treated with great caution.

New City Primary, Newham, London. Yr6 88 pupils. Disadvantaged 27. Reading Scores 107, 110, 112 (By end KS2 disadvantaged children in top 20%.)

Programmes: Jolly Phonics, augmented by Bug Club online programme, Letters & Sounds, PhonicsPlay.

Letter_to_parents_and_carers_about_online_phonics_lessons.pdf

‘Phonics is the way we teach children to recognise the sounds in words. It helps your child to learn to read and is an essential part of your child’s education. During the summer term, you will be able to access for your child a daily phonics lesson by clicking on Letters and Sounds for home and school.’ Covid19 homeschooling

Boutcher, Southwark, London. Yr6 31 pupils. Disadvantaged 7. Reading Scores 112, 110, 111

Programme: Jolly Phonics. Excellent book list for Reception. Much emphasis on reading to children

Vickerstown, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Yr6 25 pupils. Disadvantaged 8. Reading Scores 109, 110, 111

Programmes inc: Oxford Reading Tree, Ros Wilson Big Writing.

‘Where possible, English skills taught within a meaningful context.’

St Antony’s RC, Newham, London. Yr6 62 pupils. Disadvantaged 17. Reading Scores 114, 113, 114

Programme: Read Write Inc.

St Thomas a Becket RC, Greenwich, London. Yr6 29 pupils. Disadvantaged 11. Reading Scores 109, 109, 114.

Programme: Read Write Inc. ‘Books changed 3 times a week.’

Perry Court, Bristol. Yr6 47 pupils. Disadvantaged 29. Reading Scores 104, 107, 111

Programme inc. Letters and Sounds + BRP for SEN literacy.

‘From worst school in Bristol to best in 2 years.’

Lea Forest, Birmingham. Yr6 60 pupils. Disadvantaged 44. Reading Scores 101, 106, 110

Programme: Letters and Sounds + Bug Club, Accelerated Reader.

Librarian (req. ‘Log in’). Info re phonics & PSC for parents.

‘Reading for pleasure is the single best indicator of a child’s academic success’ – OECD

Henderson Green, Norfolk. Yr6 30 pupils. Disadvantaged 15. Reading Scores 94, 104, 110

‘Parent support advisor working full-time. Coffee room, drop in.’

Marshfield, Bradford, Yorks. Yr6 60 pupils. Disadvantaged 20. Reading Scores 101, 105, 110

Website not available (Domain name for sale).

Bill Quay, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. Yr6 31 pupils. Disadvantaged 8. Reading Scores 108, 106, 112

Programme: Read Write Inc.

‘Promote love of reading throughout school.’

Wainstalls, Halifax, Yorks. Yr6 26 pupils. Disadvantaged 5. Reading Scores 110, 110, 111

Programme: Letters and Sounds augmented by Read Write Inc.

Top School in Calderdale at KS2.

[Berkswich CE, Stafford. Yr6 34 pupils. Disadvantaged 0. Reading Scores 115, 112, 112

Programme: Letters and Sounds augmented by Jolly Phonics, and Big Cat Phonics

‘Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day, not only develop greater reading skills than those who do not, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.’

In addition to ensuring firm phonics foundations, school advises parents to ‘feel free to try reading different high-frequency words at home’ and encourages tactile phonics learning in EY via ‘play-doh, pipe cleaners, writing on window, use a fly swat to splat words’ etc.]

[The Russell School, Rickmansworth, Herts. Yr6 22 pupils. Disadvantaged 0. Reading Scores 109, 110, 115

Programmes: Letters and Sounds, LCP, Phonics Play: + ‘materials drawn from wide range of schemes inc. Rigby Star, and ORT.’

‘Tables show that out of all the schools in Hertfordshire (481 schools), we are: 

1st for reading progress, 1st for maths progress, 1st for the percentage of our pupils achieving greater depth in reading, writing and maths combined, 1st in scaled scores for reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling.’]

New Horizons Ch. Academy, Chatham, Kent. Yr6 37 pupils. Reading Scores -, -, 112

Programme: Letters and Sounds with Monster Phonics, Oxford Banded Books, a ‘Thinking School’ inc. DeBono’s Thinking Hats etc.

Orchard School, Streatham, London. Yr6 25 pupils (Muslim), Disadvantaged 15. Reading Scores 108, 106, 112

No information on website re phonics programme etc.

Nailsworth, Stroud, Glos. Yr6 25 pupils. Disadvantaged 8. Reading Scores 110, 110, 112

Programme: Letters and Sounds + Forest School. Guided Reading daily.

Top 1% for progress

Silloth, Wigton, Cumbria. Yr6 20 pupils. Disadvantaged 8. Reading Scores 107, 107, 112

Programme: Oxford Reading Tree, supplemented with banded books ‘to broaden experience’.

Pupil Premium funds for ‘high quality Phonics training for all KS2 staff’.

Thomas Jones, Kensington, London. Yr6 29 pupils. Disadvantaged 16. Reading Scores 112, 111, 111

Programme: Jolly Phonics with Pearson Bug Club. Noted for high quality, ambitious reading programmes throughout the school.

Outstandingly informative website.

Applegarth, Croydon. Yr6 61 pupils. Disadvantaged 46. Reading Scores 106, 113, 110

Programme: Success for All (SFA) grouped by ability, assessed every 2-3 weeks. Stated expectations, clearly laid out, detailed description.

St Joseph’s RC, Yr6 25 pupils. Disadvantaged 8. Reading Scores 107, 106, 112

Programmes: Letters and Sounds, Rigby Star, Big Cat Phonics, KS2 Destination Reader.

Holmleigh, Hackney. Yr6 30 pupils. Disadvantaged 12. Reading Scores 103, 108, 111

Programme: ? Difficult to locate relevant information with exception of ‘regular theme days’ and Bug Club Home Reading Programme.

Riverley, Walton Forest, London. Yr6 55 pupils. Disadvantaged 20. Reading Scores 107, 109, 111

Programmes: no information about phonics programme (?)

Ofsted report: ‘One of the many improvements has been in the teaching of reading. Senior and middle leaders have put in place a well-organised programme of phonics to ensure that pupils are able to use the sounds that letters make to read increasingly difficult words. Consequently, pupils in Years 1 and 2 are making brisk progress with their reading.’ A very positive report giving the impression of an extremely dynamic school.

Bailey Green, North Tyneside, Yr6 64 pupils. Disadvantaged 17. Reading Scores 106, 103, 111

Programme: Jolly Phonics with ORT.

St Mark’s CE, Stockton-on-Tees. Yr6 45 pupils. Disadvantaged 14. Reading Scores 104, 109, 110

Scant information on Phonics. ‘Read 2 decodable books a week’ and choose a ‘challenging reader’.

Newcomen, Redcar and Cleveland. Yr6 46 pupils. Disadvantaged 15. Reading Scores 108, 107, 111

Programme: Letters and Sounds. ‘Children are also taught to engage with texts and to focus on comprehension.

Our aim is that all children have a true passion for books and reading which develops their love of books and continues into adulthood.

We are extremely proud of our library.’ 

The Orion School, London NW7. Yr6 91 pupils. Reading Scores 107, 108, 111

Website: nothing relevant except ‘read at least 10 mins a day’ with parent.

Iqra, Brixton, London. Yr6 29 pupils. 16 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 110, 110, 111

Muslim Affiliation.

Programme. Letters and Sounds.

Comprehensive website information including:

 ‘In Key Stage 1 Reading and Writing skills are delivered through the specific area of English and enhanced in cross – curricular activities. We use a Power of Reading approach -immersing our pupils in high quality age appropriate texts and using these as a basis to promote drama, discussion, develop a rich vocabulary and foster a love of reading and of books. Teachers provide activities which are interesting and motivating and provide the best context for increasing children’s knowledge about the English language. Stage 1 Reading and Writing skills are delivered through the specific area of English and enhanced in cross – pupils curricular activities. We use a Power of Reading approach – immersing our pupils in high quality age appropriate texts and using these as a basis to promote drama, discussion, develop a rich vocabulary and foster a love of reading and of books. Teachers provide activities which are interesting and motivating and provide the best context for increasing children’s knowledge about the English language. It is also necessary to focus separately on aspects of knowledge about the language such as phonics and grammar so that children learn what they need to know in a systematic way. We plan English sessions flexibly and ensure that the appropriate balance of whole class, group and individual teaching is retained. Some more time in the week is set aside for guided reading, independent reading and writing across the curriculum. We make clear to children the qualities and success criteria we are looking for in their work. In Key Stage 1 children also have individual literacy targets in their books…It is also necessary to focus separately on aspects of knowledge about the language such as phonics and grammar so that children learn what they need to know in a systematic way. We plan English sessions flexibly and ensure that the appropriate balance of whole class, group and individual teaching is retained. Some more time in the week is set aside for guided reading, independent reading and writing across the curriculum. We make clear to children the qualities and success criteria we are looking for in their work. In Key Stage 1 children also have individual literacy targets in their books’

Mayflower School, Tower Hamlets, London. Yr6 50 Pupils. 30 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 107, 114, 114

Literacy rich curriculum with storytelling ‘at the heart of the school. ‘Children hear stories which are then learnt orally, deepened through a variety of creative activities. By time they leave pupils will know 48 stories really well.’ Author visits, book launches for parents. 2 Reading Recovery teachers. Accelerated reading. Teachers, TAs, local visiting business partners also give children 1-to-1 reading support. 97% pass rate in PSC.

Average score in England 2019 is 104. Mayflower, with over 60% disadvantaged children, has average score of 114.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Brent, London. Yr6 26 pupils. Disadvantaged 9. Reading Scores 106, 102, 110

Programme: Letters & Sounds.

‘Teachers use a variety of teaching styles to engage your children and develop their motivation so they become successful and avid readers and authors.’

‘We place a strong emphasis on Phonics in the early years of learning to read because we believe this lays the foundations for successful reading and writing… All teachers have been trained on using L&S and receive regular updates and support from the Literacy Subject Leader.’ Book lists for all year groups recommended by Pie Corbett.

Staindrop CoE, Darlington. Yr6 28 pupils. Disadvantaged 6. Reading Scores 110, 111, 113

Programme: Read Write Inc.

I have quoted at length from their website as it provides the clearest example of how well a school can achieve with a strong book culture.

‘Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and we ensure our English curriculum gets children into books right from the start. From the important foundations using our systematic and structured Phonics program to our wizarding Library, Giant reading bed, playground Book Nook and stunning class reading corners- we make sure our school oozes books at every turn. Our Staindrop Book Awards excited staff, pupils and authors alike. Reading whole class quality texts as a basis for literacy and many other subjects makes sure that children are exposed to the best in children’s literature and a full range of genres. Many books studied are the first in a series in order to encourage children to develop reading on for pleasure. Poetry, non-fiction, digital texts and picture books feature through the English syllabus from EYFS to Year 6.

‘Children are taught to apply their phonics skills and improve fluency through the Readwrite story books used during these sessions.

‘All staff receive training and regular updates and development days to ensure continuity and increase staff confidence in delivering these sessions.

‘Children’s progress in phonics is closely tracked and children are regularly assessed and regrouped as appropriate. The Reading leader tracks progress and identifies children who require 1:1 intervention which is then implemented in order for children to catch up.’

KS2 Independent Reading Books

‘From KS2 onwards, children use the Accelerated Reader program to track progress and encourage them to read. Online Star tests identify children’s current reading levels and guide children to choosing books at an appropriate level. On completing books children take a short comprehension quiz and aim to score 100%. Various incentives run throughout the year where children can collect tickets for each 100% scored and win cinema trips, easter eggs or special experiences. This helps to incentivise reading and keeps children motivated to read and quiz.

‘Books can be chosen from our well stocked library, class reading corners, teacher VIP book shelves or books from home. Children keep a record of their own progress in their reading record books where they note down scores and write book reviews.

When children have read a million words this is celebrated with a special certificate and a £5 book voucher.’

Guided Reading

‘We use a whole class approach to guided reading in KS2. Whole class sets of books sourced from Durham Learning Resources are used. Texts are carefully mapped to link to books studied in Literacy lesson by genre, theme or Author. Several sessions a week are given over to reading the book and class discussion. One session a week is planned to teach a particular reading skill:

‘Vocabulary, Inference, prediction, evaluation, retrieval or summarising known in school as VIPERS. These lessons consist of a model question and practise questions for children to complete. Other written tasks may be used to further their understanding of the text. On a weekly basis VIPERS activities are used based on film clips, adverts, picture or text extracts as additional independent practise of these skills.’

Literacy Teaching

‘Reading as a fundamental part of literacy lessons and units of Literacy work are planned around and based on a quality text. Texts are mapped out across school to link with topics where appropriate and to ensure coverage of a range of genres, themes, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, authors, classical texts, new releases and best -selling authors. Contact with authors is encouraged and frequently classes tweet or email authors being studied and gain responses.’

Reading Spaces

‘The school is organised to promote reading and inspire children to read. We have a Harry Potter themed library where children can choose books for home reading and non fiction books for research during lessons. Our playground Book Nook provides a sheltered place where children can go to be quiet and read at playtimes. We also host story times for the younger children read by the older pupils. In classrooms appealing reading areas provide a place to sit or choose a book and are often themed around the texts being studied in school. Every teacher has a special VIP book shelf where they keep their latests books and lend them out to children to create a sense of awe and wonder around books. Often teachers will order new books specifically requested by children and we have been known to have these delivered to children’s homes in the holidays. Our KS1 book gallery displays the books being read in classes to encourage discussions between staff and pupils. Reading is such a huge part of school life that teachers have even set up their own books clubs outside of school’.

 Celebrating Reading

‘We celebrate reading through our now yearly book awards. We start by taking pupils to our local book shop to choose the shortlisted books, followed by whole school readings of the books. Children and staff then vote for the winners. We contact the authors and are excited for their responses. Children write book reviews and share the awards via social media. World Book Day is celebrated every year in a variety of ways such as door decorating competitions, chair creating activities, a giant reading bed and dressing up. Author visits enhance the work we do in school.’

Bevington, London W10. Yr6 44 pupils. Disadvantaged 26. Reading Scores 114, 111, 113

Programme: Letters and Sounds/Read Write Inc. 15 mins daily. ORT reading + ‘real books’.

Egglescliffe CoE, Durham. Yr6 29 pupils. Disadvantaged 5. Reading Scores 104, 109, 110

Programme: detailed phonics teaching but no specific information (?) on programme adopted. ORT book scheme + 13 other decodable schemes.

Redesdale, Wallsend, N.Tyneside Yr6 25 pupils. Disadvantaged 5. Reading Scores 106, 101, 110

Programme: Read Write Inc. ‘In school we have reading stages from Stage 1 to 14 then children move onto free readers. The scheme is a mix of Oxford Reading Tree books and real books to give the children a wide range of reading material.’

New Seaham Academy, Durham. Yr 6 37 pupils. Disadvantaged 7. Reading Scores 108, 109, 110

Programme: Read Write Inc. With wide range of decodable books inc. ORT, Songbirds, Rigby Star, Project X.

High Literacy Schools with Disadvantaged Children – UPDATE

An insight into how some schools with significant numbers of disadvantaged children achieve high literacy results (updated version)

DfE COMPARE SCHOOLS PERFORMANCE (Reading) 2017, 2018, 2019

With a few exceptions, the list below is limited to top-performing schools in deprived areas of England, selected from the 100 best-performing schools in Year 6. Minimum reading score in 2019 is set here at 110 with the average for the 20,000+ primary schools being 105. Selection is limited to schools with a minimum of 20 pupils. Nearly all schools listed use one of three synthetic phonics programmes – Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc. Schools with deprived intake often compare favourably with those with a largely middle-class intake.

Website information indicates that the overwhelming majority of schools listed have benefited from systematic synthetic phonics foundations. However, a minority have also included controversial teaching elements; in rare occasions it appears that outliers such as Reading Recovery or Discovery Learning can be effective but overwhelming evidence-based research and the fall in literacy rates in US, NZ, and Wales, for instance, suggest that failure is a far more common outcome. ‘Holistic’ and progressive methods of teaching reading can be successful but need to be treated with great caution.

New City Primary, Newham, London. Yr6 88 pupils. Reading Scores 107, 110, 112

Programmes: Jolly Phonics, augmented by Bug Club online programme.

By end KS2 disadvantaged children in top 20%.

Boutcher, Southwark, London. Yr6 31 pupils. Reading Scores 112, 110, 111

Programmes: Jolly Phonics and Letters & Sounds.

Vickerstown, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Yr6 25 pupils. Reading Scores 109, 110, 111

Programmes inc: Oxford Reading Tree, Ros Wilson Big Writing, Nelson Handwriting.

‘Where possible, English skills taught within a meaningful context.’

St Antony’s RC, Newham, London. Yr6 62 pupils. 17 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 114, 113, 114

Programme: Read Write Inc.

St Thomas a Becket RC, Greenwich, London. Yr6 29 pupils. Disadvantaged c.40%. Reading Scores 109, 109, 114

Programme: Read Write Inc. Books changed 3 times a week.

Perry Court, Bristol. Yr6 47 pupils. 29 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 104, 107, 111

Programme inc. Letters and Sounds + BRP for SEN literacy.

‘From worst school in Bristol to best in 2 years’

Lea Forest, Birmingham. Yr6 60 pupils. 44 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 101, 106, 110

Programme: Letters and Sounds + Bug Club, Accelerated Reader.

Librarian (req.‘Log in’). Info re phonics & PSC for parents.

‘Reading for pleasure is the single best indicator of a child’s academic success’ – OECD

Henderson Green, Norfolk. Yr6 30 pupils. 15 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 94, 104, 110

‘Parent support advisor working full-time. Coffee room, drop in.’

Marshfield, Bradford, Yorks. Yr6 60 pupils. 20 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 101, 105, 110

Website not responding

St Edmund’s Tower Hamlets, London. Yr6 25 pupils. Reading Scores 110, 112, 112

Website not responding

Bill Quay, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. Yr6 31 pupils. 8 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 108, 106, 112

Programme: Read Write Inc.

‘Promote love of reading throughout school.’

Wainstalls, Halifax, Yorks. Yr6 26 pupils. 5 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 110, 110, 111

Programme: Letters and Sounds augmented by Ruth Miskin Inc.

Top School in Calderdale at KS2.

[Berkswich CE, Stafford. Yr6 34 pupils. 0 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 115, 112, 112

Programme: Letters and Sounds augmented by Jolly Phonics, and Big Cat Phonics

‘Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day, not only develop greater reading skills than those who do not, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.’

In addition to ensuring firm phonics foundations, school advises parents to ‘feel free to try reading different high-frequency words at home’ and encourages tactile phonics learning in EY via ‘play-doh, pipe cleaners, writing on window, use a fly swat to splat words’ etc.]

St Theresa’s RC, Oldham, Lancs. Yr6 28 pupils. 17 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 101, 108, 110

Phonics Programme: Website ‘details to be added soon.’

‘The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data suggests that the proportion of pupils living in the 10% most deprived LSOAs is substantially higher than the Oldham primary school average. In fact, based on the IMD data where 30.4% of Oldham Primary School pupils live in the 10% most deprived areas, 58.1% of pupils at St. Theresa’s R.C. live in similarly deprived areas. ’

[The Russell School, Rickmansworth, Herts. Yr6 22 pupils. 0 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 109, 110, 115

‘Tables show that out of all the schools in Hertfordshire (481 schools), we are: 

1st for reading progress, 1st for maths progress, 1st for the percentage of our pupils achieving greater depth in reading, writing and maths combined, 1st in scaled scores for reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling.’

Phonics Programmes: LCP/Letters and Sounds + ‘materials drawn from wide range of schemes inc. Rigby Star, and ORT.’]

New Horizons Ch. Academy, Chatham, Kent. Yr6 37 pupils. Reading Scores -, -, 112

Phonics Programme: Letters and Sounds with Monster Phonics, Oxford Banded Books, a ‘Thinking School’ inc. DeBono’s Thinking Hats etc.

Orchard School, Streatham, London. Yr6 25 pupils (Muslim), 15 disadvantaged.

Reading Scores 108, 106, 112

Nailsworth, Stroud, Glos. Yr6 25 pupils. 8 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 110, 110, 112

Phonics Programme: Letters and Sounds. + Forest School. Guided Reading daily.

Top 1% for Progress

Silloth, Wigton, Cumbria. Yr6 20 pupils. 4 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 107, 107, 112

Phonics Programme: Oxford Reading Tree, supplemented with banded books ‘to broaden experience’.

Pupil Premium funds for ‘high quality Phonics training for all KS2 staff’.

Thomas Jones, Kensington, London. Yr6 29 pupils. 16 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 112, 111, 111

Phonics Programme: Jolly Phonics with Pearson Bug Club. Noted for high quality, ambitious reading programmes throughout school.

Applegarth, Croyon. Yr6 61 pupils. 46 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 106, 113, 110

Phonics Programme: Success for All (SFA) grouped by ability, assessed every 2-3 weeks. Stated expectations, clearly laid out, detailed description.

St Cuthbert’s RC, Windermere. Yr6 28 pupils. 2 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 107, 112, 112

Website in transition.

St Joseph’s RC, Yr6 25 pupils. 8 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 107, 106, 112

Phonics Programmes: Letters and Sounds, Rigby Star, Big Cat Phonics, KS2 Destination Reader.

Holmleigh, Hackney. Yr6 30 pupils. Pupil Premium c.39%. Reading Scores 103, 108, 111

Phonics Programme: difficult to locate relevant information with exception of Bug Club Home Reading Programme.

Riverley, Walton Forest, London. Yr6 55 pupils. 20 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 107, 109, 111

Phonics Programmes: website devoid of information about curriculum (?)

Bailey Green, North Tyneside, Yr6 64 pupils. 17 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 106, 103, 111

Phonics Programme: Jolly Phonics with ORT.

St Mark’s CE, Stockton-on-Tees. Yr6 45 pupils. 14 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 104, 109, 110

Little information on Phonics. ‘Read 2 decodable books a week’ and choose a ‘challenging reader’.

Newcomen, Redcar and Cleveland. Yr6 46 pupils. 15 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 108, 107, 111

No website.

The Orion School, London NW7. Yr6 91 pupils. Reading Scores 107, 108, 111

Website: nothing relevant except ‘read at least 10 mins a day’ with parent.

Iqra, Clapham, London. Yr6 29 pupils. 16 disadvantaged, 26 EAL. Reading Scores 110, 110, 111

Muslim Affiliation. No information on website.

Mayflower School, Tower Hamlets, London. Yr6 50 Pupils. 30 disadvantaged, 47 EAL.

Reading Scores 107, 114, 114

Literacy rich curriculum with storytelling ‘at the heart of the school. ‘Children hear stories which are then learnt orally, deepened through a variety of creative activities. By time they leave pupils will know 48 stories really well.’ Author visits, book launches for parents. 2 Reading Recovery teachers. Accelerated reading. Teachers, TAs, local visiting business partners also give children 1-to-1 reading support. 97% pass rate in PSC.

Average score in England 2019 is 104. Mayflower, with over 60% disadvantaged children, has average score of 114.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Brent, London. Yr6 26 pupils. 9 disadvantaged, 23 EAL. Reading Scores 106, 102, 110

No information on phonics/further reading/literacy.

Staindrop CoE, Darlington. Yr6 28 pupils. 6 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 110, 111, 113

‘Reading daily using either flashcards or green/red words to practice. Books changed 3 times a week.’

Bevington, London W10. Yr6 44 pupils. 26 disadvantaged, 27 EAL. Reading Scores 114, 111, 113

Phonics Programmes: Letters and Sounds and Read Write Inc, including modelling reading, guided reading, reading lists, information from Home reading – Ruth Miskin Phonics Training

Redesdale, North Tyneside. Yr6 25 pupils. 5 disadvantaged, 1 EAL. Reading Scores 106, 101, 110

Phonics Programme: only information (?) Yrs 2-6 Read Write Inc. Spelling 15 mins daily. ORT reading + ‘real books’.

Egglescliffe CoE, Durham. Yr6 29 pupils. 5 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 104, 109, 110

Phonics Programme: detailed phonics teaching but no specific information (?) on programme adopted. ORT book scheme + 13 other decodable schemes.

New Seaham Academy, Durham. Yr6 37 pupils. 7 disadvantaged. Reading Scores 108, 109, 110

Phonics Programme: Read Write Inc. With wide range of decodable books inc. ORT, Songbirds, Rigby Star, Project X.