Now the dust has begun to settle after the phonics screening check, three schools have sent me this year’s results. First up is Pinchmill Lower, where, like last year, 100% of the children got between 32 and 40. Well done to head teacher Vanessa Coleman and to her staff. Next is Fishburn Primary School in Durham and… Continue reading Phonics screening check – results from three schools
I’m just back from Perth in Australia, where I’ve been running two back-to-back courses with Mary Gladstone, our resident Sounds-Write trainer based in Lismore, near Brisbane. We had a terrific time with our animated trainees. It must be the weather! Their winter, when I arrived, was warmer than our ‘summer’, even if the sun does… Continue reading Sounds-Write in Western Australia
In the last couple of years, St George’s CE Primary School in Wandsworth, of phonics screening fame, have welcomed into their school two pupils from different parts of the world who arrived without any English. St George’s CEPS scores again! What is remarkable about the education the school is offering under the leadership of head… Continue reading St George’s CEPS scores again!
Last year I reported on St George’s CE Primary School’s success – they achieved a magnificent 96.5% success rate in the phonics screening check. St George’s is in Wandsworth, where the average pass rate was 66%. Painting of St George’s slaying the non-word monster Vap, with Janet Hilary looking on! There is little doubt what… Continue reading St George’s triumph over screening check!
I’ve been looking at an example of the phonics screening check from the DfE’s website. Here’s what it looks like in terms of structure: Section 1: the words and how they are structured in terms of consonants and vowels: tox CVC, bim CVC, vap CVC, ulf VCC, geck CVC, chom CVC , tord CVC, thazz CVC), blan… Continue reading The screening check, Sounds-Write style
In this, my final look at David Reedy’s contribution to the debate about whether the phonics screening check should be continued, I want to look at more of the claims he has made. Reedy complains that when administering the check the class teacher ‘may […] be out of the class for three days or more’.… Continue reading UKLA baloney
Continuing on from yesterday, today I want to look more closely at some of the claims made by David Reedy in his contribution to the ‘debate’ in the April issue of Teach Primary. Reedy states that, ‘in 2012, the UKLA undertook a survey of KS1 schools and teachers about the [phonics screening] test’ [sic] and… Continue reading Is it time to ditch David Reedy?
The latest issue of Teach Primary carries a debate entitled ‘Is it time to ditch the phonics screening test?’ In actual fact, its correct title should be ‘Is it time to ditch the phonics screening check’ but we’ll come back to this point. In any event, it pitches Debbie Hepplewhite against David Reedy. As most… Continue reading David, is ‘reedy’ a pseudo word?
Today, yet again we see a London newspaper highlighting yet another attempt to put a tiny piece of sticking plaster on what seems to be the ever festering sore of illiteracy in schools. The London Evening Standard reports that university students are being sent in to five London secondary schools to provide ‘urgent’ help for… Continue reading Illiteracy in London secondary schools? It’s Standard practice.
Last week in the oxforddictionaries blog, professor Simon Horobin posed the question ‘Does spelling matter?’ and, in truth, it’s very hard to answer largely because it is so multidimensional. One of the most immediate and obvious of problems when dealing with correct spelling is the seemingly enormous amount of emotional investment people have in the… Continue reading Does spelling matter?
