S Higgins, M Katsipataki and R Coleman, ‘Interim evidence brief reading at the transition’, Education Endowment Foundation, 2014. ↩

Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words. Librarians also played an active role in supporting struggling readers. In 3 schools, librarians had access to data on struggling readers, such as reading ages, and helped pupils to find books that they might like and that were suitable for them. In 2 schools, librarians were responsible for online reading assessments. One librarian administered reading tests at the end of a paired reading scheme. Librarians used this information to find out what pupils were reading. In each of these schools, librarians were part of the way schools used data to monitor the progress of struggling readers and to recommend suitable books for them to read. While there is a need for hands-on printables and workbooks, I believe a child greatly benefits from owning their own small Phonics Reader Set. To be able to hold their own books, and be able to synthesize the words without struggling, children will grow confidence! Pupils with the lowest reading skills are tested in Years 7 and 8, at the beginning and end of the year, using a phonics one-to-one assessment. Pupils who need phonics teaching start a phonics programme at a level based on the letter/sound correspondences they know.

Frequently Asked Questions about Phonics

In all of the schools, librarians were part of school initiatives to increase pupils’ reading and they supported reading-for-pleasure initiatives across the school. One literacy leader stressed how valuable the school librarian was: HMI said in focus groups that schools often did not know whether any strategy to help struggling readers was working. This was because they did not evaluate the impact of individual reading programmes. HMI said schools found it hard to talk about the difference something was making and how this informed planning and evaluation. Buying programmes to support struggling readers should be the beginning, not the end of the process. Before buying a programme, schools should know what will be needed. There is a body of knowledge that all pupils need so they can make progress. Schools should use insightful assessment to ask whether what is in place is helping those who need it most, and what progress these pupils have made in learning that body of knowledge. They may not be massively behind their chronological age with regards to their reading, but it could be their fluency and their confidence in reading. Sometimes we find they can read but it’s extremely slow so it’s about trying to improve the fluency of their reading. The school has 5 specialist reading programmes in Years 7 to 9, to teach different individual components of reading. These include programmes to improve vocabulary and spelling.

If you’re looking to save money and print out a free resource, The Measured Mom has created mini phonics books for each word family. I absolutely love these books, particularly because of their large text. A child can sound out each word in the word family with confidence. These are an incredible resource and I highly recommend them! Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read.

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However, this kind of teaching matched to need was described in only 4 of the 30 inspection reports we analysed.