The place of phonics and comprehension in Secondary interventions
The DfE reading framework is aimed at primary schools, initial teacher training (ITT) partnerships, specialist provision and others in England. It includes a section covering children at risk of reading failure which refers to ‘older pupils who need to catch up’ and explains ‘the importance of systematic phonics teaching for older pupils who are at risk of failing to learn to read because they cannot decode well enough.’
The guidance does not specify the age or key stage of ‘older pupils’ but indications from the recent curriculum review of English and Ofsted are that it does refer to Secondary school pupils.
Ofsted has given further insight and guidance in their blog: supporting secondary school pupils who are behind with reading.
The blog includes links to relevant publications including a useful slidedeck about reading support for secondary pupils.
We have put together a presentation which should be read in conjunction with the reading framework and relevant Ofsted publications to offer a narrative to help secondary settings reflect on the aforementioned guidance and use it to consider appropriate content - phonics, comprehension or both - for interventions.