Perhaps the biggest casualty of the so-called “reading wars”, or more specifically the fight over whether or not to teach phonics, is that it robs a lot of time from potential discussion about how to teach phonics well. And considering that every primary school in England teaches phonics, that seems like a conversation we should be having, says Julia Carroll.

Pretty much all schools in the UK teach phonics, and we’ve known for at least 20 years that phonics is the most effective way to teach early reading and early literacy,” says Carroll, a reader in child development and education at Coventry University, and one of the world’s leading authorities on phonics.

“The government guidance has been pretty consistent on that as well - it is very explicit and very specific that we should be teaching phonics. So I think we really do need to move on and talk about how we can best teach phonics and how phonics fits into other elements of reading, as well as key phonics approaches.”

A good place to start is whether the differences between the many phonics schemes that schools use can have an impact on outcomes. Carroll thinks not: the differences are so small, she believes, and the prescription from government is so great, that the schemes are largely similar.

“The main schemes that schools use are synthetic phonics and they have similar kinds of focus,” she explains. “The idea is that you introduce a few letters and teach kids those letters, and then start teaching them how to segment and blend using those letters, and then you introduce more letters and repeat the process. One of the main differences between the schemes, though, is how many letter-sound combinations are taught. Some schemes teach rarer combinations and some really focus on the most common ones.

“Which is better? To be honest, as long as you follow the guidance in the schemes, then they’re going to be similar and have quite similar outcomes.”

Where variability between schools may arise, though, is with the level of autonomy teachers have to stray from the prescription of the phonics scheme, says Carroll. The schemes tend to be highly specific about teaching approaches - almost scripted - and that is not something many teachers in this phase will be used to. The desire to make the scheme your own or bring in other elements will be strong. Carroll says this desire will ultimately detract from the scheme, though.

“The thing with the systematic synthetic phonics is that as soon as you start going away from the manual, it starts to be less systematic and that can make it less effective because it makes it more difficult,” she says. “There are lots of places in which we do want teachers, obviously, to add their own personality and so on, but when it comes to phonics schemes, probably not so much. It’s a very structured system for a reason.”

Another area of variability is the level of differentiation used in the teaching of phonics. Most schools will use some whole-class teaching and then do specific work with specific groups of children. The ways in which those groups are “set” may differ, with some believing that differentiation that resorts to a setting approach has a detrimental effect.

Indeed, many studies on setting do suggest it is not that efficacious for any of the set groups, but can have a negative impact on those in the lower groups. However, while this downside of differentiation may be true for other areas of education, Carroll says that with phonics, the research is clear this is not the case.

“Research-wise, I think differentiation does show better improvements and I think that’s probably again because phonics is such a systematic process. Before you start putting together words with four sounds, you have to be able to put together words for two sounds so you have to work on that child’s individual level really,” she explains.

“So, phonics is one of those areas in which small-group teaching with children, pushing them on from the level they’re at, seems to be the most effective factor.

“Often, schools will use whole-group teaching to maybe introduce a new letter sound, to talk about some sounds and relationships, and then use the small groups to reinforce that, and work at the level of the individual children so that the more advanced children can be using more complex words and using a wider variety of words, and the children working at a lower level can be supported to do the less complex words and everyone can move along.

“In other areas, differentiation can cause more individual difference in the classroom - that the top children really get on but the children working behind that lead group really fall behind. But actually it seems like, in phonics, all the groups do better by having a bit of differentiation.”

How far will variations on all the above affect the pass rate of the phonics screening check in Year 1? We don’t really know for sure - and there is the issue that the check itself is seen by some as problematic as a test of phonics knowledge.

What Carroll is sure of, though, is that if a child does not pass the check, then it is important that the phonics is continued with other tools for reading brought in, too. But she adds that the notion that those who do pass the check have “completed” phonics is a dangerous one.

“The idea of [continuing to have] phonics in the background is a good idea,” she says. “Traditionally people have talked about, when children are reading books, encouraging them to use multiple cues to try to work out unknown words, but we now know that phonics is the most effective way of working out unknown words, and it doesn’t always work but it’s the method the children should try first.

“In the older year groups, you’re not necessarily teaching them explicit phonics rules in class so much - but you are encouraging them to use their phonics knowledge all the time when they are reading and spelling.”

Clearly, phonics teaching goes beyond the key areas mentioned here and into a lot more detail (we didn’t cover spelling, for example, which is worthy of an article of its own), but what Carroll does give here is an outline of important areas to consider, from which more detailed conversations should spring.

And if we can stop arguing about whether phonics should be taught, we may be able to make time for those conversations.

Jon Severs is commissioning editor at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 30 October 2020 issue under the headline “Tes focus on…How to do phonics well”