Teaching children how to read and write is arguably the most important jobs primary schools have to do. Education Reporter hayden Lewis looks at what impact plans to shake-up the way children are taught to read will have on their formative years.

OVER the years, the way children are taught to read has been chopped and changed by successive Governments and now the current Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly has decided it is her turn to put her stamp on things.

The Government has accepted a review which backs the greater use of a method called synthetic phonics. Under this method children are taught the sounds of letters and combinations of letters before they move on to books, rather than reading simple books from the start. Nick Seaton, The chairman of the York-based parent's group The Campaign For Real Education, has welcomed the use of phonics.

But he said Mrs Kelly's announcement was tantamount to a U-turn and made a mockery of the Government's literacy strategy over the past eight years.

"I'd go as far as to say that the National Literacy Strategy has been a waste of time for the past eight years and phonics should have already been being used," he said.

So what is this wonderful "new" reading method?

Synthetic phonics is designed to be used as the first building block for learning how to read and is taught in schools during the first one or two terms when a child first goes to school.

It is not "new" in the strictest sense of the word, more like it has come back in to fashion.

The Government's review was carried out by Jim Rose, a former director of inspections at England's schools' inspectorate, Ofsted. He said the system should be used "first and fast".

It came about after a Commons education select committee report back in April found an "unacceptably high" 17 per cent failure rate in reading tests for 11-year-olds.

These changes would mean all children would be taught this way before the age of five.

Trials of synthetic phonics at schools in Scotland showed over a 16 week period children taught to read using the system had on average reading age 18 months ahead of their peers and an average of three and a half years by the time they left primary school.

Phonics is already used in most schools in York, but not necessarily in a systematic or prescriptive way.

The T-kit scheme - using toys for taking turns and talking - is being run in nursery and reception classes at six York schools - Hob Moor, Our Lady's RC, St Lawrence's CE, Clifton Green and Poppleton Road.

Described as "pre-phonics" learning, it is the brainchild of speech and language therapist Jo Bishop, who has been using her teaching methods on youngsters since May this year.

Barbara Jones, who teaches the nursery class at St Lawrence's, said the scheme has been going well.

"The scheme we use is called "jolly phonics" and we try and learn a letter sound every day, each one has an action. For example the "s" sound is the hissing noise a snake makes and the children have to pretend they are snakes."

Mrs Jones is joined by the schools head of early years, Janet Rickatson, in their praise of phonics.

Mrs Rickatson said: "Our first reaction to the Government's announcement was: "New? I don't think so!

"We have been teaching phonics including the pre-school form for some time now and the results have been fantastic. It means they can deal in the sound of words and is a great vehicle for them to start then making the words themselves."

Such has been the interest from parents at the school that Mrs Rickatson held an afternoon class for parents to show them what their children have been learning.

"I have never seen the parents so interested in something. We had over 20 parents come in to school and they were all eager to learn more," she said.

Current government guidelines advise schools that phonics should be used alongside other methods. Education Secretary Ms Kelly said she accepted the findings and saw a "real opportunity" to teach the system.

She said: "There is a real opportunity to teach synthetic phonics systematically, but also other skills so necessary to children learning to love reading and learning to speak and communicate effectively."

But many teachers fear synthetic phonics does not suit all children's learning styles and argue it can destroy the joy of reading.

City of York Council's executive member for education, Coun Carol Runciman, said: "This is a tried and tested method and I'm glad it's come back in to fashion, but it needs to be used alongside other methods according to the individual child's needs."

The final version of the Rose review, expected early next year, will inform the Government's redrafting of its literacy strategy, planned for 2007.

Updated: 11:01 Monday, December 05, 2005