Reading lessons for teachers

Teachers are not being taught the necessary skills to help struggling children to read, a report says today.

In a drive to improve the way reading is taught, the Government has ordered that all primary school teachers should be trained to use the back-to-basics reading and writing method known as synthetic phonics.

But education watchdog Ofsted has warned in its report that "few" trainee teachers had a clear understanding of how to use the system to help children aged seven and up who struggled to read and write at the expected standard.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "Trainees need more opportunities to be able to observe high quality lessons so they know how much children are capable of when they are taught phonics well."

Despite the investment of hundreds of millions of pounds, around 20 per cent of children still leave primary school unable to read and write well enough to cope at secondary school.

In 2006, after the review by former Ofsted senior inspector Sir Jim Rose, the Government ordered primary schools to make synthetic phonics - or "systematic" phonics, as ministers prefer-to say - the main way to teach reading and writing. Studies in Scotland showed that pupils who did six years of synthetic phonics were three and a half years ahead of their age in reading, and nearly two years more advanced in spelling, compared with those taught by other methods.

Instead of learning the 26 letters of the alphabet, children being taught via synthetic phonics are taught 44 sounds - 19 vowels including "ow", "ee" and "ue" and 25 consonants including "ks" as in "exist" and "zh" as in "treasure" - and then taught to read by blending the sounds. Critics believe the repetitive nature of synthetic phonics can put pupils off reading for pleasure.

Last March, Schools Secretary Ed Balls was forced to admit his " impatience" that one in four primary schools had yet to implement Sir Jim's programme known as Letters and Sounds.

However, London schools minister Lord Adonis has said: "I am confident that the next generation of teachers will be equipped to teach reading and writing at the highest level."