Choosing a programme for the teaching of phonics

High-quality phonic work can be achieved by using a commercially produced programme, or Primary National Strategy materials. Settings and schools can also use other programmes such as those they have developed themselves, or which have been developed for use within their local area.

What is important is that the programme adopted by the school or setting meets the criteria for high-quality phonic work and that it is adhered to 'with fidelity', applied consistently and used regularly, avoiding drawing in too many elements from different programmes.

The following criteria should therefore be applied by schools and settings in choosing a high-quality programme or when judging the quality of their existing programme for teaching phonics. The programme must:

• be fully compatible with a broad and rich curriculum
• be systematic, with a clearly defined and structured progression for learning all the major grapheme-phoneme correspondences: digraphs, trigraphs, adjacent consonants, and alternative graphemes for the same sound
• be delivered in discrete daily sessions at a brisk pace that is well matched to children's developing abilities
• be underpinned by a synthetic approach to blending phonemes in order all through a word to read it, and segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell them
• make clear that blending and segmenting are reversible processes
• be multisensory, encompassing various visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities that actively engage children (e.g. manipulating magnetic or other solid letters to build words, or activities involving physical movement to copy letter shapes)
• make clear the importance of speaking and listening as the foundation for embarking on a systematic phonics programme and for acquiring the skills of reading and writing
• offer clear guidance on how to assess progress and use this to inform the next steps of learning
• offer guidance about adapting and adjusting the programme for children with special educational needs or who have missed earlier elements.

To assist settings and schools in choosing a phonics programme, the DfES plans to set up an independent quality assurance system to assess commercial phonics programmes. This system will evaluate these programmes, based on the criteria set out above. We will publish a list of programmes that meet the criteria on the DfES website during the spring term 2007. The Department and the Primary National Strategy will also use independent experts to develop a new phonics programme that meets these same criteria to replace 'Playing with sounds: a supplement to progression in phonics', which will also be available during the spring term 2007. This will make it easier for settings and schools to implement high-quality phonics teaching, either by choosing a commercial programme, by using the new Primary National Strategy phonics programme, or by using programmes that they have developed themselves, which meet these criteria.