Sal McKeown is impressed by an imaginative reading scheme created for struggling readers
Dockside from Rising Stars is a mixed media, "second chance" reading scheme aimed at older primary and secondary pupils who are struggling to read.
Jointly developed with schools and nasen with a soap theme, it has already won national recognition – the 2012 ERA award for Best Special Educational Needs resource.
Synthetic phonics is central to government policies. Ray Barker explains why, and the role of ICT
Of course, the critics say synthetic phonics can’t possibly work. English is basically an ‘unphonetic’ language; there are so many exceptions to any rule.
Just think about the opening to a child’s story: ‘Once upon a time there was ...’. How do you teach a child the sound of ‘o’ in once? It’s not the same as the ‘o’ in dog or in blood or in enough. What about the sound of ‘a’ in was? It’s more like an ‘o’ definitely not like the sound of ‘a’ in cat. Because it’s the sound of letters we are concerned with here. It’s about learning the 44 sounds in English and their corresponding letters or letter groups
