The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) released a report that applies two methodological approaches new to the WWC that together aim to improve researchers' understanding of how early literacy interventions may work to improve outcomes for students in grades K-3. First, this report pilots a new taxonomy developed by early literacy experts and…

Ofsted's 2017 review of the Reception year curriculum, Bold Beginnings, asserts that reading is the core purpose of the Reception year, and advocates 'systematic synthetic phonics' as the teaching method. This article challenges this precept by reference to recent research into the nature of reading, the way children learn in the Reception class…

The Ofsted report entitled Bold Beginnings: the Reception curriculum in a sample of good and outstanding primary schools is part of a research programme aimed at reviewing the primary curriculum and its implementation. Although the report highlights the 'uniqueness' of the Reception year, it also undermines the principles of Early Years Foundation…

This narrative literature review evaluates the effectiveness of synthetic phonics in comparison with analytic phonics. It presents the key research findings and offers a critical appraisal of this research. Primary schools have developed a variety of assessment processes which assess pupils' knowledge and skills in synthetic phonics. It is through…

Since coming to power in 2010, the UK Coalition government in power has implemented a range of reforms in relation to assessment at all stages of education in England. This paper focuses on two assessment reforms relating to children aged five and six years old, and considers their evolution from manifesto commitments to practice in classrooms.…

We report an empirical comparison of the effectiveness of two theoretically motivated computer-assisted reading interventions (CARI) based on the Finnish GraphoGame CARI: English GraphoGame Rime (GG Rime) and English GraphoGame Phoneme (GG Phoneme). Participants were 6-7-year-old students who had been identified by their teachers as being…

Background: There is evidence that children who are taught to read later in childhood (age 6-7) make faster progress in early literacy than those who are taught at a younger age (4-5 years), as is current practice in the UK. Aims: Steiner-educated children begin learning how to read at age 7, and have better reading-related skills at the onset of…

The aim of this study using a quasi-experimental design was to investigate whether utilising synthetic phonics in schools catering for low-income families in India would increase reading and spelling attainment in English. Over 500 children in 20 schools took part in the 6-month programme. Just over half of the children experienced lessons…

A fiercely contested debate in teaching reading concerns the respective roles and merits of reading schemes and real books. Underpinning the controversy are different philosophies and beliefs about how children learn to read. However, to some extent debates have largely been rhetoric-driven, rather than research-driven. This article provides a…

It is well-established that language skills are amongst the best predictors of educational success. Consistent with this, findings from a population-based longitudinal study of parents and children in the UK indicate that language development at the age of two years predicts children's performance on entering primary school. Moreover, children who…