About

I started my teaching career in Buckinghamshire where I was a class teacher and subsequently worked in various Local Authorities in London as a primary class teacher, literacy lead and a specialist teacher supporting children with special education needs in English and Mathematics. During which time I trained and worked as a Reading Recovery teacher and specialised in teaching children with dyslexia. I am based in South West London.

Over the past twelve years I have worked in the Hammersmith & Fulham school support service as an advisor modelling best practice in English and supporting teachers and teaching assistants in the classroom. I have also successfully developed and led training both centrally and at school based meetings on various aspects of the school curriculum, and led and delivered undergraduate courses for Roehampton University. During this time I studied for a MA in Education which I passed with distinction and this led to my publishing a chapter on working with children with special educational needs in Unlocking Literacy (2nd ed - pub David Fulton). I was also awarded Local Consultant for Improvement status by the National Strategies after a sustained period successfully supporting writing in a school causing concern. I have been involved in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 moderation for the local authorities and supporting Newly Qualified Teachers in their first year of teaching.

Recently, with a particular focus on the use of phonics in schools, I have been using my expertise in supporting schools and teachers with teaching children to read and write with an emphasis on the strengths and limitations of this aspect of learning to read and write. I have monitored the phonics screen in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster for the past four years and assisted schools in successfully supporting children taking part in the screen. I have run training courses for teachers and teaching assistants in phonics and supporting reading and writing.

I am also involved in two specialist panels for the Standards and Teaching Agency looking at the suitability of the Key Stage 2 Reading and Key Stage 1 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar tests.

I have an enhanced DBS check.

• Support with in-service training in any aspect of the English curriculum for school.
• Support phonics teaching or run training for schools using Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics or Read, Write Inc.
• Training to make sure your school is prepared for the KS1 and KS2 tests.
• I offer a full assessment process in reading and writing with detailed written reports and advice.
• I can teach reading and writing on a 1-1 basis with children who are struggling.

If you have any questions about reading, writing or phonics please post them in the contact form below and I will try to answer them.

• Could you please suggest a suitable phonics scheme for KS 2?

There are several published schemes for KS2 but having seen various programmes being used in different schools I would say that the knowledge and enthusiasm of the teacher are more important. Any programme (such as Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, ReadWriteInc which are the ones most frequently used at KS1) can be adapted to suit KS2 pupils by adjusting pictures and words to make them more suitable. Sites such as www.phonicsplay.co.uk have interactive games which may be attractive for older pupils and there are various sets of reading books such as Rapid Phonics or Comics for Phonics, which will be more interesting for older pupils to practise applying their phonics.

When pupils are having difficulty with phonics at KS2 it is frequently because they have missed or misunderstood a crucial phase of systematic phonics teaching. They may have difficulties with blending and segmenting sounds, understanding the alternative spellings for particular phonemes (sounds) - for example, not knowing whether to use ai, ay, a-e for the /ai/ sound as in train, or have confusions about particular letters and their corresponding sounds. It is important to know exactly where their confusions are. Therefore, the first thing to do is assessment. Once it is clear where pupils have confusions or gaps in their knowledge some specific support can be planned. Hope this helps.

• At the end of last term my child’s teacher informed me that she had failed the reading test that children take at the end of year 1. Evidently she could not read the nonsense words. My little girl can read fairly fluently and understands what she reads. I was told she would get more support when she moved into year 2. I am worried that she will be given boring, repetitive books to read and she will be turned off reading altogether. What should I do? Janet R.

I presume that the test you refer to is the Phonics Screen which consists of a list of words, real and nonsense, that children read to their teacher. They have to reach a benchmark of 32 out of 40 to have ‘passed’ the check. This is not a test of reading ability or comprehension but tests children’s ability to use phonics to de-code words individually (ie: recognise the letters and the sounds they represent to build up words). This is why nonsense words are included as they will not be recognised by any children and therefore children will have to use any phonic knowledge they have to work them out. While most children use phonics to support their early reading, not all do and it may be that your child does not. The following quote comes from the Government website (gov.uk) Phonics screening check evaluation, Final report June 2015 - ‘the evidence suggests that the introduction of the check has had an impact on pupils’ attainment in phonics, but not an identifiable impact (or not yet) on their attainment in literacy.’ In other words the check has improved children’s phonic ability but not necessarily their ability to read. I would suggest that reading ability is more important than phonic knowledge although usually they do go hand in hand in the early stages.

Continue to read interesting and fun story books with your child at home and discuss the books read, any unusual words, pictures, characters etc. Encourage her to read the bits she can and you take over when she struggles. Try and make this fun, not a chore. Go to see her new teacher and explain your concerns (she/he should already be aware of your child’s reading ability). If the teacher insists on sending home phonically regular books for your daughter to read, go along with this but supplement them with your own story books. Hopefully, the extra support she will get will include work on spelling, as even if your daughter can read fluently without phonics, she will need to have some phonic ability to become good at spelling. Your daughter will be asked to retake the Phonics Screen at the end of Year 2 and hopefully she will pass this time, but do remember, this is not a reading test. Do contact me again if you need any more information.

You can contact me directly via email at paula.frew@gmail.com.