“Whole classes” of pupils are leaving primary school without basic reading skills because of a failure to focus on systematic synthetic phonics (SSP), according to a teaching consultant.

Anne Glennie has warned that Scotland is falling behind England, where staff are required to use the method and all children in year one undergo a screening check. She also said teachers were not being provided with the professional training necessary for optimal results in the classroom.

SSP aims to help pupils master the relationships between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes). For example, children are taught to break up "bat" into its three letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn and then blend the phonemes together to form the word.

The approach has been a topic of fierce debate in recent years. Supporters say it is crucial to developing a strong foundation in literacy. However, critics insist it does not nurture a love of reading and argue that engaging with whole texts, such as books, should come first.

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Earlier this year, experts at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education published research that called on UK ministers to drop what they described as the increasingly narrow focus on synthetic phonics. They also claimed that analysis of reviews, trials and data suggested reading instruction in England may even have been less successful since the method was adopted.

Professor Dominic Wyse, co-author of the UCL study, said: “Our view is that the system doesn’t give teachers enough flexibility to do what they think is best for their pupils, nor to encourage pupils to enjoy reading.”

However, Ms Glennie – who trains teachers in SSP and in areas such as reading for pleasure and comprehension – challenged Prof Wyse’s characterisation. She said: “Synthetic phonics is a body of knowledge that should be included in the curriculum and taught to every child. Essentially, it’s learning letters and sounds of the alphabetic code of English. It’s what we use to read and what we use to spell. We read for meaning, absolutely, but you can’t understand if you can’t get the words off the page. Synthetic phonics is the mechanics of being able to get the words off the page.

“The problem we have in most Scottish classrooms is we are teaching a bit of phonics but we’re also teaching sight words, we’re teaching children to memorise words as if they’re pictures, we’re teaching multi-cueing. It’s the mix of methods, the balanced approach, a bit of phonics on the side. But what we’re saying is that, within that core period of reading instruction within the school day, teaching should be limited to systematic synthetic phonics.”

The Herald: Lewis-based education consultant Anne Glennie, who is also a fully trained primary teacher, has concerns about Scotland's approach to literacy.Lewis-based education consultant Anne Glennie, who is also a fully trained primary teacher, has concerns about Scotland's approach to literacy.

Ms Glennie also rejected claims that focusing on SSP would lead to narrower learning experiences. “A child will never be prevented from reading any other book in the classroom," she added. "It’s only restricted to systematic synthetic phonics for reading instruction. It’s like stabilisers on a bike - as soon as children know they have a good, solid, basic code under their belt, the stabilisers are off and, from the end of P3, you’re a free reader.”

Ms Glennie told The Herald it was clear the English focus on SSP had begun to pay dividends. She said: “There are schools in England where they’re getting 96, 97 per cent of their children at the end of primary reading to the equivalent of our second level, and that’s schools even where 60 per cent of the children might be disadvantaged or where 60 per cent have English as a second language.

“Meanwhile, in Scotland, I’m increasingly being contacted by secondary teachers who are stuck because they’ve got whole classes coming into secondary schools who cannot read and who need intervention. So they can’t even access the curriculum and that’s because the job’s not being done properly in primary. And I say that as a primary teacher."

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Ms Glennie, who is based on Lewis, previously lodged a petition that urged Parliament to pursue the roll-out of SSP-based professional learning and called for moves to ensure the approach is included in initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. However, Stephen Kerr, convener of Holyrood’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, told her in a letter that MSPs had no current plans to scrutinise ITE. He also confirmed the petition had been closed. 

Ms Glennie said: “I can resubmit on the same topic in a year’s time, which I’ve no doubt I’ll have to do. In the meantime, I am starting a Right To Read Scotland campaign to raise awareness among teachers, and parents in particular, about whether children are being taught using the most effective research and methods.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We recognise that phonics instruction is an important part of a successful literacy strategy which should include all  ‘Five Pillars of Literacy’: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension – as well as reading for pleasure. This is the balanced approach taken in Scotland’s schools.”