Extremely disappointing news for West Australia

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 4:42 pm

Extremely disappointing news for West Australia

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

This is extremely disappointing news - and, as Dr Jennifer Buckingham comments, let's hope that Ms Ellery will 'take time to consider its findings before making a firm decision'.
WA Education Minister Sue Ellery rules out phonics test

Bethany Hiatt, Education Editor
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/ellery-r ... b88574201z
“The WA On-Entry assessment in pre-primary does not provide the same information as a Year 1 assessment administered after 18 months of learning, so there is no duplication,” Dr Buckingham said.
National and international professional development could not be better served right now than uptake of a year one phonics screening check - the same, or similar, to England's phonics check. Teachers really, really need to know how effective their foundational skills teaching is in literacy.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Extremely disappointing news for West Australia

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

My opinion is that anyone in educational and political authority who cannot understand the phonics check as really important for that snapshot of relative teaching effectiveness in foundational literacy, then surely they should not be in post.

Any teacher not teaching the children in their care well enough seriously needs some high-quality, research-informed training and experience.

The English writing system has the most complex alphabetic code in the world that needs to be taught explicitly and well - for ALL the children.

Any teacher who does not teach all the children effectively needs to know this - and should want to know.

The educationalists and politicians with official clout should be able to understand this and WELCOME a snapshot phonics check - and one that already has a 'baseline' from implementation in England since 2012 where teaching effectiveness can be seen to be on the rise year-on-year.

What does this mean for the children themselves?

Does anyone really need this to be spelt out?
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