Eng: Minister Nick Gibb routinely sends congratulatory letters to schools achieving very highly in the Y1 phonics check

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

[Geoff Vaughan]

I think this is so important to have a systematic phonics champion as the schools minister. Nick Gibb has been consistent in his determination to have proper decoding taught properly in Primary schools in England and it is this determination of his that is slowly but surely showing the improvements so badly needed for young learners. It is so easy for many to knock this commitment but, even when I have my doubts about Govt led policy drives, I keep reminding myself that it is the most at risk learners who benefit from a structured approach at an early stage and that will give them the very best possible start to being accomplished and successful readers. In addition, in nearly every serious article and comment about SSP from lead practitioners (like Debbie) they are always, always clear in saying that learning to decode is essential alongside creating a language rich learning environment. This is important and can sometimes be lost in the on-going debates.

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

Unfortunately, it's looking like there is a lack of joined-up thinking and action in England despite the incredible advances made to promote evidence-informed systematic synthetic phonics provision within a language and literature rich environment.

Since the pandemic and coronavirus lockdown in England, the government in England has provided advisory links to various programmes and intervention.

For foundational literacy, the 'DfE validated' phonics programmes are flagged up here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... es#english

But an extremely concerned person sent me information to show that for literacy special needs, that is for 'intervention', the government coronavirus links lead to suggestions from the Education Endowment Foundation with none of the high quality phonics programmes included! The EEF has entitle this their 'Promising Projects List'.

Please note that the DfE validated systematic synthetic phonics programmes are not just initial teaching, or 'mainstream' programmes - they are also intervention programmes.

I was provided with evidence to illustrate these worrying connections (or should I more aptly say 'disconnections'), see here:

https://iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... covery.pdf

The Department for Education in England, and Ofsted (the schools' inspectorate) have been informed about this very worrying state of affairs.

It's very clear that pioneers for evidence-informed reading instruction in America and Australia (and other countries) - often associated with dyslexia organisations - are fighting a corner for systematic synthetic phonics provision for both mainstream and intervention provision.

I'm coining the phrase 'Orwellian Double Guidance'.

This idea is coming from the notion of Orwell's 'Doublethink' and 'Doublespeak':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak

Because what are teachers to understand for their professional understanding of reading instruction whether for mainstream provision or intervention. They keep being given official and authoritative mixed messages. This LEAVES TO CHANCE what they 'understand' and what they provide for children. It's shameful and unaccountable.