Summary: | In April 2005, Ofsted judged that the pupils at Brooklands School in Greenwich had made outstanding progress in English. The school attributes much of this success to its systematic teaching of phonics. It currently follows the Jolly Phonics programme, and each day the pupils are taught letter sounds in a dedicated twenty minute session. When a new phonic is introduced, the children are given opportunities to practice and reinforce their learning in all areas of the curriculum. The teachers are particularly impressed by the way in which this multi-sensory approach, currently focused on games and role-play on the subject of pirates, has made a huge impact on pupils--particularly on boys. Gloria Hunt, the headteacher, believes that the school's current practice matches the key recommendations of The Rose Report. Brooklands plans to use the report and related local authority training to refine its practice further.
Over 90% of the children at Marner Primary school in Tower Hamlets (the majority of whom are Bangladeshi) are learning English as an additional language. They have good (and improving) results in maths and science, but are keen to raise their attainment in literacy, particularly in writing. As part of the Early Reading Development Pilot, Marner has adopted a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics. The children are carefully grouped, based on on-going assessment of their phonological awareness, and are taught within these groups at Stages 1-5. The teachers and teaching assistants, all well-versed in the teaching of phonics, are very enthusiastic about this approach; they find it works well for both boys and girls and helps their pupils motivation to read and write. Head teacher Mary Todd is encouraged by the school's results, and strongly endorses a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics.
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