The English-speaking world has given its thumbs up to Synthetic Phonics
Governments in the UK, USA and Australia have all conducted systematic reviews of what works and what doesn’t in the early teaching of reading. Each government made similar recommendations: every child should be taught to read and spell using a synthetic phonics approach.
The reports all consistently say that Synthetic Phonics is…
Fast… A child will learn 33 phonemes in only 16 weeks
Efficient… No child is left behind. We certainly agree with this – in our own schools we saw our literacy rate go from 80% to nearly 100%. No wonder we became such converts!
Effective… Even with groups who are traditionally more likely to find reading difficult (boys, English as a Second Language learners and Special Education Needs children) the results are still first-rate.
It is testimony to the efficacy of synthetic phonics that as of September 2007 it was mandatory that every school in England and Wales adopted a synthetic phonics approach to the teaching of early reading.
What does this mean for UK schools?
- Every child from age five will be learning to read with synthetic phonics
- The school will need to choose a letter sequence: e.g. ‘Letters and Sounds’ or’ ‘Playing with Sounds’ and stick to that sequence.
- Synthetic phonics lessons are to be taught discretely, systematically and explicitly. This means that it must not be taught within other literacy lessons.
- Communication Literacy and Language Development (CLLDs) consultants will be visiting schools to train and advise on the adoption of the Synthetic Phonics approach.
- School inspections will be assessing how well the synthetic phonics approach has been adopted within the schools.
- Parents need to be shown how to use a synthetic phonics approach to follow up at home. Get Reading Right has a great parent's guide to go hand-in-hand with our books. We even have a free down-loadable parent evening presentation that is ready to deliver.
- Kindergartens/nurseries will want to teach synthetic phonics so that all children moving onto primary school have a solid foundation to continue learning to read and spell.
What about in Australia?
Australian schools are free to choose the methodology they use to teach early reading and spelling. Unfortunately this means many schools will be using whole-word and sight-word approaches, which really do not achieve high enough literacy rates.
For those Australian schools who have chosen synthetic phonics they are enjoying watching their children's reading and spelling success take off! It is no surprise that the Australian media has picked up on this; The Australian, Today-Tonight and 9am all discuss the fantastic results synthetic phonics achieves.
Our programme: The Synthetic Phonics Toolkit means Australian schools can get synthetic phonics up and running right away. Taking their first step to their children's synthetic phonics success!
What can parents do?
A child, while learning to read, needs support from both school and his/her parents. Extra reinforcement and guidance at home can only do good. "Learn to Read and Spell with Synthetic Phonics" gives you everything you need to ensure your child masters every part of the phonemic code.
How is synthetic phonics different from other phonics approaches?
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