The Week Ahead 15 November 2019
18 Nov 2019



From the Master 来自校长 마스터
Dear parents I read an interesting article on the development and success of phonics recently. Many of you will have children currently using phonics as part of the literacy programme in the Nest and Junior School. A study in 2005, from Scotland, showed that children in a phonics programme were seven months ahead of their expected age for reading and spelling. Few teaching methods, the article argued, were backed by such strong evidence as trials in phonics have shown. The reason I raise this now is that, whilst for the most affluent native speakers of English, the effect may wear off after time as they would eventually learn to read well anyway, for second language learners, phonics has proved a particularly significant boost. The head of early years at a charity which operates 38 schools in the UK said that “other approaches [to literacy learning] rely on existing child vocabulary and life experiences. Phonics helps to put children on a level playing field.” In other words, children who do not have the same linguistic and cultural opportunities as children in the UK, have the chance to learn to read and write at a similar pace to their peers in the UK through the use of sounds, rather than the traditional obsession with pronouncing entire words. This must be music to the ears of parents with children learning English as a second language. The next stage for the teaching of phonics is to make sure that the process remains varied and interesting to the learner. Phonics has, at times, been open to the criticism that it loses the magic of ‘real’ words and that reading can lose its power to enchant if broken down as scientifically as it is in a phonics class. I have been lucky enough to have visited a number of classes using our Read, Write, Inc. programme this term, and I have been struck by two things: the pace of the learning is exhilarating and the structure of the programme means that children of all ability groups are stimulated and challenged by the work. The progress we are seeing in classes is very encouraging, and I am sure you will see that reflected in the end of term reports. As we near the final month of the term, I would encourage all parents to find out more about phonics and how it will help your child to make accelerated progress in English acquisition. Listening to your child read each day, even though you may not be a confident speaker of English, helps that child to become more fluent in their spoken language as well as a faster, more accurate reader. The ‘levelling of the playing field’ that phonics encourages is never more obvious than when it can transfer successfully from the classroom to the home. Best wishes Julian Jeffrey MASTER










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