Editor's View: renewed focus on phonics

There's been a rapid pincer movement in the past few days as Ofsted and the Government have both made it clear that there will be a very rigorous focus on phonics as the way to get children reading before the age of six (see News, page 4).

Ofsted's report is full of examples of schools where three-year-olds have their daily dose of recommended phonics programmes and reading scheme books.

The DfE's business plan says it is to introduce a reading test for six-year-olds and expects an even greater emphasis on synthetic phonics (News, page 5).

The arguments for and against 'phonics first and fast' have been rehearsed many times and will no doubt be brought out again in the light of these latest moves.

It is interesting, for example, to look back at copies of Nursery World from decades ago (as we are at the moment, while putting together an 85th anniversary supplement). In the early 1960s, we published a story saying that there was 'a swing away from formal rote memorization and early teaching of letters in favour of active experience of number, and a delay in introducing reading until a stage of readiness has been reached, normally about six or seven years'.

The same point is still being made. And the Ofsted report coincided with Demos's publication Born Creative, which conveys the message that we should not return to a narrow focus on the basics (News, page 6). One of the authors is Thomas Coram Children's Centre head Bernadette Duffy, who provides a richly creative environment there, and says that music, for example, will develop children's ability to distinguish between 'p', 'v', and 'b'. Whether the message is being heard in the Government seems open to question.