Trial gets children reading at four

A back-to-basics method of teaching children how to read should be introduced in a bid to improve falling standards, educational experts said today.

Trials showed that pupils who had done six years of the traditional system, known as synthetic phonics, were three and a half years ahead of their age in reading, and nearly two years advanced in spelling.

If adopted nationwide, supporters believe the method could transform standards and cut down on the bad behaviour and truancy associated with low literacy levels.

The trials were conducted in schools in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, where pupils were taught how to construct words "from the ground up", by learning the sounds that go with letters and how they blend to form a word.

Only when they had mastered making words and learned some of the most common irregular spellings were they allowed to start reading simple books. A report by the centre-right think tank the Centre for Policy Studies called for the back-to-basics system to be introduced nationwide.

Reading expert Tom Burkard warned that millions of children are destined to struggle without a radical rethink of the way they are taught to read. Nearly 1.2 million children have already been "failed" by the national literacy strategy, he said. Mr Burkard said: "When taught this way, children can learn far faster than most teachers would ever think possible.

"Most children are reading independently in the very first term of reception year."

Ronnie O'Grady, head teacher of Menstrie Primary School, which was involved in the trial, said: "Teaching synthetic phonics gives children strategies for reading and writing that they wouldn't have had at the early stages using other methods. These early gains seem to last."

A report on the trial said: "We can conclude that a synthetic phonics programme, as part of the reading curriculum, has a major and longlasting effect on reading and spelling attainment."

The Labour-dominated Commons Education Select Committee is so impressed that it is set to urge the Government to conduct large-scale experiments. The call comes as David Bell, chief inspector of Ofsted, warned reading standards in schools have failed to improve in certain respects for 30 years.

He said the quality of teaching is too patchy - just as in 1975 when the Bullock Report on poor reading in state schools was published.