By Lynna Thompson, Head Teacher, Monteagle Primary School, East London.

Why I decided to embark on the Ruth Miskin's Synthetic Phonics programme

The background

In total, I have been working at Monteagle for 12 years. For 11 of those years I've been less than happy with the progress children make in reading. As a school we seemed able to reach the average reader and the high flyers but unable to impact with our 'hard to shift' readers.

Over those years we had implement a lot of schemes and initiatives around reading. Regardless of what we introduced, we couldn't reach those children swinging off/sitting under the bottom rung of the reading ladder. This situation didn't sit well with my belief that the children at Monteagle, given the right educational input, can compare with any child in the country. However, we were not discouraged.

Underperformance

In February 2005 I became head teacher of Monteagle. I saw this an opportunity to begin to realise my vision of a happy, effective and efficient running school.

In the summer of 2005, it became clear that a core – about a third – of our year 5 were seriously underperforming. These children were not going to succeed in a mixed ability class where chances are they would spend their time fathoming out how to be avoided; misbehave. These children needed an intensive teaching programme.

Progress at last

Miss Joy Whitehouse volunteered to take this group of children. In September 2005, Joy started to teach the Ruth Miskin synthetic phonics programme with almost immediate positive results. A member of the Local Authority monitored the progress. By the end of the spring term, it was decided that the programme would be rolled out across the school.

We had organised a rolling programme of training and staff had begun to visit schools with good and better practice in the teaching of this particular programme. By the summer term, some staff were so impressed by the scheme they began to teach it, despite not being trained! By the end of the summer term, we were determined to forge ahead with the scheme for September 2006. The Deputy and I were so confident and excited that this was the programme for Monteagle children. We knew it would work and our mindset was, to quote Hannibal – "We will either find a way or make one".

Why does the scheme work?

The scheme does work and here are some reasons why:

• It fits the needs of the children



• The Head and Deputy are 100% committed to and passionate about it – we were and are prepared to do whatever it takes to make it work – massive action on our part!



• The whole staff and this includes support staff, believe in the scheme and are committed to it.



• The programme is wonderful. It is taught daily with a daily, relentless emphasis on learning sounds.

Reptition is the mother of skill.

The Monteagle Project | The Challenges | A Week in the Life of the Programme… | Benjamin Zephaniah | Monteagle Primary School Poem | Shane's Poem | Why We Did It | What Monteagle Did and What It Cost | The Testing of Reading Ability at Monteagle Primary School

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