An article, ‘Making the Grade’, in The New Republic (TNR) early this month really helped clarify for me the issue of hiring and firing of teachers in this country. First, let me say that The New Republic leans towards the Democratic Party in the USA and can be very sharply critical of anything rightwards of centre-right in US… Continue reading ‘Making the grade’ in the USA
There’s an opinion piece published in the TES today (20 04 2012) in the ‘What keeps me awake at night’ column, imploring Mr Gibb to ‘read up on phonics’. Sadly, it’s yet another witless little anti-phonics diatribe from another benighted simpleton who advertises his ignorance of what phonics is from the start. He tells us… Continue reading What keeps the anti-phonics lobby awake at night
I haven’t posted about anything from The USA’s National Public Radio (npr) for some time now but one of their latest pieces really caught my eye this morning. It’s titled ‘From Silicon Valley: A New Approach To Education’ and, although it’s not exactly new, it should scare the beejesus out of higher education sectors everywhere.… Continue reading The shape of things to come?
The latest issue of Teach Primary has published a short piece I wrote for the magazine about the new Y1 phonics screening check. See also my previous blog postings on the subject here, here and here. If you would like to read it, it’s sent out free to all primary schools and is also available from… Continue reading Teach Primary on Y1 phonics screening check
As June approaches and more heads across the country realise that, in a little over two months, their Year 1 pupils will be sitting the government’s new phonics screening check, the level of panic is beginning to rise. Yesterday’s TES (‘Heads read the riot act over new phonics test’) was reporting that some heads are… Continue reading Heads’ nervousness increases as phonics check looms
I have twice now visited schools which have had Ofsted inspections. Both praised the schools’approach to teaching children to read and spell. Here is an extract from the latest: “Good progress in reading continues across the school, the result of the consistent approach in teaching daily phonics sessions, and older pupils demonstrate increasingly accurate spelling… Continue reading What is wrong with the culture within Ofsted?
The infamous illustration that was censored by a school! Follow the discussion at http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1432936-why-wont-school-let-pupils-see-these-pages-of-Oxford-Reading-Tree-book?pg=1
In large part this new report has been motivated by the need to respond to a growing tide of complaints from employers’ organisations and from higher education institutions about the standards of literacy of school leavers. There is also a growing awareness that, in the globalised world in which this country operates, other countries have… Continue reading That Ofsted report – ‘Moving English forward’
Since 1995, standards in literacy have stalled, says Michael Wilshaw. He claims that one in five children in primary schools have such low standards of literacy that they can’t access the secondary curriculum when they make the transition. So, what’s going wrong? Michael Wilshaw is in no doubt. The training that many teachers have been… Continue reading Teachers need proper training to teach phonics, says Michael Wilshaw
In a piece supoosedly arguing ‘against a phonics versus books stand-off’, yesterday’s Guardian gave space again for Phoebe Doyle, described on their pages as a former primary teacher who now writes on education, parenting and health issues’, to bellyache about how phonics is being used in school. She had previously written ‘Boy-friendly practice is just… Continue reading Hey Phoebe, leave those phonics teachers alone!