Nick Gibb: 'To raise school standards still further we must learn lessons from the success of the phonics check'

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Nick Gibb: 'To raise school standards still further we must learn lessons from the success of the phonics check'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Minister Nick Gibb (England) writes an article for the TES (Times Educational Supplement). Nick is working hard internationally to describe the benefits of England's statutory Year One Phonics Screening Check. Many people are resisting a similar check being implemented nationally in Australia - very sad and misguided.

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... rn-lessons
Nick Gibb: 'To raise school standards still further we must learn lessons from the success of the phonics check'
Teachers should be proud of their achievements, says schools minister Nick Gibb as he sets out how far the sector has come, and where we need to go next

This week, the International Summit of Teaching Professionals will bring together governments, teaching unions and experts from around the world to share examples of brilliant teaching and ultimately, to celebrate our teachers.
Phonics benefits

In fact, there is no better example than the introduction – by this government – of the phonics check. All the evidence pointed to its benefits and the Pirls international results showed that following the introduction of the check, standards in reading have risen significantly. Now there are 154,000 more 6-year-olds on track to be fluent readers than in 2011. And the Pirls data shows our nine-year-olds have achieved their highest ever result in the lifetime of the study.
The resistance to implementing a phonics check in Australia is nothing short of a tragedy.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Nick Gibb: 'To raise school standards still further we must learn lessons from the success of the phonics check'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Equally current, this is a comment from a worried parent in Australia - a parent's perspective....

... the Phonics Check seems to have stagnated in all states except SA.

The wheels turn so slowly and in the meantime too many children are thrown under the bus.

How long will it take after the phonics check is adopted before teaching practices are addressed? (that is IF it is adopted)

I don't see Australia mandating systematic synthetic phonics as they have done in the UK, so what measures will ensure evidence based best practice is adopted in schools?

There is already numerous existing statistics (NAPLAN, PISA, ABS, etc) that demonstrate the unacceptable number of children not achieving our very low minimum benchmarks, and yet our universities continue to teach balanced literacy approaches, schools and teachers have autonomy to teach how they see fit, teaching unions & associations preach ideology and they all blame a lack of funding and inadequate home environments for the poor results.

From an outsider, novice advocate and parent perspective, their heads are well and truly in the sand and very few are prepared to acknowledge that the primary problem lies in education and the way we teach reading.

Parents practically get laughed out of schools if we start talking about this stuff. Teachers do not want parents knowing about progress or benchmarks and it seems impossible to get information. In fact learning support teachers speak to parents in such a way that it makes you feel like you have issues and gives you anxiety. Quite often parents are not even advised that their children are receiving learning support, except when their children inform them, and when they question what programs/interventions are being used they are simply told "don't worry its a good program". I have personally had parents tell me this is what they've been told when their children were in Reading Recovery.

Is there anything we can be doing now to reignite the Phonics Check debate?
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