Phonics teaching, however, could be much, much better still in the vast majority of schools in England if the know-how was really there.Closing the gap by inches – but still with miles to go
Published in TES magazine on 27 February, 2015 | By: Kaye Wiggins
Poorer primary pupils improve on phonics but falter elsewhere
Disadvantaged five- and six-year-olds are catching up with their more affluent classmates when it comes to phonics skills, new data reveals.
But on a broader range of measures, including social, emotional and physical development, poorer pupils are still lagging behind.
Primary school leaders warned that the latest figures from the Department for Education showed that more work was needed to help Year 1 pupils eligible for free school meals to close the gap with their peers.
In 2013-14, 61.3 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals met the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check – 15.7 percentage points lower than the figure for more advantaged students. The attainment gap dropped from 16.6 percentage points in 2012-13, which is three times the decrease recorded during the preceding 12 months.
However a separate government measure, which takes into account a much wider range of factors, shows that little progress has been made in closing the gap for FSM pupils.
A high-quality systematic synthetic phonics programme should include lots of vocabulary enrichment and language comprehension.
Everyone knows, also, how much I think we need to raise levels of teaching handwriting and presentation - and how much I deplore the over-use of mini whiteboards for phonics provision (other than occasional 'quick-fire' show-me activities). So I'm suggesting writing standards could be raised across the board with better-still teaching.
In other words, whilst we may never totally close the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children, I suggest there is lots of room for much higher quality phonics and enriched language and literature provision.
It would help if there wasn't mass detraction from the value of phonics by all the individuals and organisations who bang on in the media about the Year One Phonics Screening Check being scrapped - shame on them.
I'm doing the opposite - and banging on about widespread use of the Year One Phonics Screening Check following its official use in England, once the DfE has made it available for free online.
All teachers should be 'up for it' and would want to know how well they are teaching compared to the benchmark of phonics results in England itself.
Ever hopeful I am!
