Believe it or not there really is a debate on whether Nursery aged children should be taught formal phonics lessons instead of having books read to them. It was born out of the sincerest of motives, to try and narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged children and those who have a background rich in language and literature. Considering the latest OFSTED report 'Bold Beginnings', it seems appropriate to discuss this issue now.
Whilst the intentions are obviously very good, it seems to me, entirely unnecessary to start children on formal phonics teaching whilst they are so young. For a start there are few Nursery teachers who have had detailed phonics training and I suspect it would be quite overwhelming for some without such training. More importantly, there is plenty already in place that a good Nursery or preschool can do that will actually have more impact.
· Read to children, all the time. Good quality children’s books introduce pre-schoolers to a world of language. They will encounter words and ideas they might never meet in their everyday lives. Take Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, for example, it is crammed with wonderful vocabulary, including words like squabble, row and racket. It has marvellous rhythmic language and detailed, rich illustrations. The potential for learning through books is enormous, particularly in this age of hundreds of amazing books being published all the time.
· Use Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds. It is, for a Government publication, incredibly well thought out and researched. It is based on good Early Years practice and is easy to use as well as being free. It gives opportunities for children to learn all the basic skills in small groups and bite sized pieces. Most importantly it focusses on hearing the phonemes. Being able to hear phonemes is more important at this stage than recognising the letters, as hearing all the sounds in words is often the sign of a good reader. Children in Key Stage 1 who struggle with blending and segmenting, have often missed out or failed to grasp Phase 1. Without it, all the letter recognition in the world will not make children into decoders or readers. Phase 1 also is part of a rich language curriculum and using it enables children to explore language, through, for example, rhyming words.
I will use my own children as examples of children learning phonics. They both attended the same outstanding nursery and are not the target children, in that they had a rich language environment at home. I never, however, did any sort of teaching with either of them, we just read to them a lot and they were regular library visitors.
My son is one of the oldest in his year group and also a fairly mature child. He became very interested in letters and sounds when he was at nursery. The nursery taught Phase 1 but realised my son wanted something more and was ready to try new things. They responded to his questions and showed him letter formation when he asked for it. Unusually my son wanted the phonics so he could write rather than read. Rather than being bored when he started Reception, his very able teachers interested him still further and consistently challenged him. Learning phonics was, for him, very active and all about application.
My daughter, in direct contrast, is one of the younger ones in her year and not particularly mature. She was not even remotely interested in phonics, reading or writing, whilst in Nursery, which was not a problem or an issue for the staff, and happily no-one tried to force her into doing anything she did not want to do, as they recognised this would be entirely counter-productive. When she started school she had no idea of phonics and the only letter she recognised was the start of her name. Once formal phonics teaching began with Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds my daughter quickly picked it up and within a few weeks had begun to read and write. She was approximately the same age as my son when he showed an interest, but had started school significantly younger.
Both of my children were ably supported at an appropriate level at Nursery, neither of them would have benefitted or even been interested in formal phonics lessons at that stage. In fact one of the Nursery staff once told me they would not be teaching the children to read. I said 'good' as I did not want them to have formal lessons- but actually she was wrong; through excellent play and speaking activities, they did indeed teach both children to read, through giving them the right foundations for doing so later on.
Lastly, why are we forcing younger and younger children into formal education? There is no evidence that the earlier you start formal learning the better the outcome. In fact, countries like Finland, which have very good outcomes, do not start children in formal school until they are seven years old. Nursery aged children need time to play and the freedom to learn through play, including learning about language and phonemes. They need wonderful books and richness of language to become story tellers as well as readers. There is no rush; they are in formal education for so long, there is no advantage in trying to get them there sooner.
