Since the publication of the Rose Report, the DfES has decided to implement The Review of Early Reading and to establish an ‘independent quality assurance system’ that will assist schools in choosing a programme ‘which best matches their specific circumstances’.
Sounds~Write has been invited to take part in the discussion to develop and implement the operation of the quality assurance criteria.
The criteria, as the DfES have so far listed them, are:
• Full compatibility with a broad and rich curriculum
• Systematic approach, with a clear defined and structured progression for learning all the major grapheme-phoneme correspondences: digraphs, trigraphs, adjacent consonants and alternative graphemes for the same sound
• Capability of being delivered in discrete daily sessions at a brisk pace that is well matched to children’s developing abilities
• Underpinning by a synthetic approach to blending phonemes in order all through a word to read it, and segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell them
• Clarity that blending and segmenting are reversible processes
• Multi-sensory approach, encompassing various visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic activities which actively engage children (for example, manipulating magnetic or other solid letters to build words, activities involving physical movement to copy letter shapes)
• Clarity about the importance of speaking and listening as the foundation for embarking on a systematic phonics programme and for acquiring the skills of reading and writing
• Availability of guidance on how to assess progress and use this to inform the next steps of learning
• Availability of guidance about adapting the programme for children with special educational needs or who have missed earlier elements.
We welcome the invitation to participate in the forthcoming discussion and, in the meantime, will continue to offer the high quality, systematic phonics trainings for which we are already renowned.
Item Filed: 28/09/2006