My eldest child started school fifteen months ago and soon afterwards, he was making us very proud by sounding out words sound by sound and then blending those sounds together to make the word. He even does it with an action which starts with his fists together in front of his chest and as he blends the sounds to make the word, he opens his arms up. He quickly became really confident in the technique and loves reading as a result.
I certainly couldn’t remember learning to read like that but I assumed that it was a longstanding practise that had been introduced decades ago. It turns out, it wasn’t. Instead, teaching children to read by using phonics was introduced to the National Curriculum by Michael Gove in 2010 and to some pretty stiff opposition too.
Yet the improvement in reading standards has been extraordinary. In 2012, which was the first year that reading progress for six year olds was measured, just 58% reached the pass mark. This year, 81% of six year olds are reaching the standard with 92% reaching it by the end of Year 2.
The UK had fallen to tenth in the international rankings for reading standards amongst nine and ten year olds. Yet the very first cohort of children to be taught using phonics have already moved the dial as ten year olds, moving the UK up to 8th place and set to climb further.
Rather too often, the debate about education seems to focus entirely on what money is going in and hardly ever about the remarkable improvement in educational standards we’re seeing in our schools. The fact that children are now learning to read so much better is something we should all be celebrating. We should be giving our primary school teachers a huge pat on the back too. They’ve delivered an amazing transformation that is really benefitting our children.