Reading Guidance Consultation

Since the middle of September, how schools teach early reading has been a thorn in the side of education cabinet secretary, Lynne Neagle. She’s faced a number of critical news reports from ITV National News, questions in the Senedd from both Welsh conservatives and Plaid, and plenty of scrutiny on social media from all sides.

If you’ve been following the story, you’ll know that the main focus of the investigation has been about Welsh Government’s official guidance for schools, which includes the following statement: “I can use context and pictures to help me understand what I read.” This guidance has meant schools across Wales are using the discredited approach of multi-cueing to teach children to read. Multi-cueing was first popularised by Reading Recovery which has been championed in the UK and Europe, by UCL and academic, Professor Dominic Wyse since 1991.

What is wrong with using context cues to help decode words? For many children, those who come from advantaged backgrounds, where sharing books and reading together happens early in the child’s life and continues throughout their childhood, it may not be a significant problem. They learn to read well, early and they reap the rewards of their reading fluency throughout their academic career. However, for children who struggle to read, maybe they have a specific reading challenge, in the form of dyslexia, or they come from a background where books and reading together just doesn’t happen, or maybe reading for them is just more of a struggle, using multi-cueing has the potential to completely undermine their reading progress and stunt their academic progress. When pupils are encouraged to look at the picture to guess a difficult word that they are struggling to decode, they are building bad habits. This bad habit of “guessing” from context cues, undermines the act of decoding, it harms their knowledge of the correspondence of the letters and sounds those letters represent.

After weeks of denying there was an issue with the official guidance, Welsh Government have changed their mind…well sort of. The official line from Ms Neagle has been on quite a journey. She started by saying Welsh Government didn’t advocate any one specific method to teach reading, moving to schools always having been expected to use “synthetic phonics”, then avoiding the use of the term “synthetic phonics” making it just “phonics” instead, and characterising the guidance as schools being expected to use “phonics within a balanced approach”. Now, Welsh Government have published a consultation document that changes the official guidance from:

“I can use context and pictures to help me understand what I read.” To,

“I can use context and pictures to help me understand the meaning of what I read.”

Not much of a change, but a significant difference in practice. Welsh Government is now quite clearly shifting from using context cues as a method of decoding to only recommending the use of pictures for example, to help with reading comprehension. If the consultation, which is due to close on December 20th, receives approval, then schools must stop teaching pupils to use context cues if they come across a word they struggle to decode and only these cues when pupils can already lift the words off the page, and are instead reading a text for meaning.

Interestingly, a recent announcement from University College of London states that “UCL has taken the difficult decision to step back from holding the trademark for Reading Recovery at the end of July 2025.” Given the overwhelming international evidence against multi-cueing as an effective approach for decoding and the move by more and more education systems towards mandating schools use systematic synthetic phonics programmes, this may signal the beginning of the end for multi-cueing in schools around the western world.

So, Wales is finally moving with the evidence. They are finally dropping a discredited method in favour of systematic synthetic phonics, which has a huge body of evidence to support it. Actually, no, not quite. The new guidance shared by Welsh Government in the consultation document is still stopping short of advocating for the use of Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP). Requiring schools to use phonics in a systematic way is not enough. There are five main types of phonics approaches; systematic synthetic, analytic, analogy-based, embedded and onset and rime phonics. Schools need to know, clearly and simply, which approach has the best chance of working. And they need a government who is willing to clearly tell them that, even if it means agreeing with their political opponents in doing so.

The changes to the guidance for reading also include the following: “When appropriate in a learner’s development, the teaching of phonics should be systematic and consistent, and take place with other language activities, which promote vocabulary-building and comprehension.” What’s wrong with this? Well, it suggests that some learners aren’t ready for the systematic teaching of phonics, which seems very strange. Why are they not ready to start learning about the alphabetic code, and what are they supposed to be doing until they are ready? We would argue that the only way to become ready to do something, is to start doing it. If you are struggling to walk, should you avoid swimming altogether? Surely moving your limbs in a new context, with the right kind of support, will build your strength for walking, running and swimming. The same is true for phonics. Learning that we have an alphabetic code, and that it links with the sounds of our language will not hinder pupils’ ability to speak and understand the language itself, nor will it slow their reading development down.

8. And let’s not forget about the pupils who have already built a habit of “guessing” difficult words using context cues, and struggle with their reading fluency as a result. How will they be supported to “re-learn” the act of decoding? Indeed, in the new WG guidance, it states “It is important that all learners’ knowledge and use of grapheme-phonemes builds on a solid phonological awareness. Without this, the systematic teaching of phonics is unlikely to be effective.” So, Welsh Government themselves recognise the need to ensure that every learner has been taught and fully assimilated a “sound phonological awareness.”

Welsh Government need to be clear with teachers that teaching should include systematic synthetic phonics for every reader who is struggling to decode. Not just children in reception classes, but children of any age who are not yet fluent decoders. Unfortunately, one of Welsh Government’s key advisors, Professor Dominic Wyse does not agree with this approach. His advice, which is clear in the amended guidance, and is the premise for his new book with Charlotte Hacking “recommends replacing systematic, synthetic phonics instruction with contextualized phonics embedded within “literacy rich” lessons.” This recommendation flies in the face of significant international research on what works. It is also fails to acknowledge the improved reading outcomes for countries who have adopted Systematic Synthetic Phonics in their schools.

We know standards of reading for pupils in Welsh schools is not what it should be, so every school in Wales should be asking themselves, are we getting the teaching of reading right? If you would like to find out the answer to that question, click on the button below.

If you're looking for a Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme, we have a free offer for you. We do not make any money from this offer. Our focus is to help schools to find out more about systematic synthetics phonics, by using a fully DfE validated scheme for free for a whole year. Read on to find out more about the programme and how you can access it.

Impact Wales has teamed up with Jolly Learning to give teachers in Wales an amazing offer.

Jolly Learning is the company behind Jolly Phonics, one of the easiest and most effective ways to teach children how to read and write English.

And now, teachers in Wales can access the Jolly Classroom online platform absolutely FREE FOR A WHOLE YEAR.

Developed using 30 years of experience with Jolly Phonics, Jolly Classroom is designed to engage children, take pressure away from teachers and bring joy to reading and writing.

Within Jolly Classroom, teachers can access:

• A full and extensive year's programme with more than 150 lessons
• More than 75 hours of varied content
• Worksheets for every lesson
• More than 100 unique lesson activities
• Multisensory learning, great for young children
• Engaging animations for formation, blending, and segmenting
• Activities to get children up to the board and interacting

Teachers in Wales can get 12 months free access to the Jolly Classroom platform for a whole year from when they sign up. This offer will be open for 3 months until December 25th 2024.

This will give all teachers in a school access to Jolly Phonics, and each teacher can have their own unique account and logins.

Finola Wilson, Director of Impact Wales, said:

"We know that reading levels among children in Wales are poor compared to the rest of the UK, and evidence from PISA and the National Test results shows they are getting worse. Evidence shows that systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) can have a transformative effect on reading ability.

“That’s why we are proud and excited to be teaming up with Jolly Learning to give all teachers in Wales the chance to access a leading systematic synthetic phonics programme for free. This is an incredible offer that has the potential to have a significant impact on reading outcomes in Wales.”

Gilbert Jolly, CEO of Jolly Learning, said:

“We have seen the transformative power of phonics in helping children learn to read and write confidently. The recent reports of declining literacy levels in Wales are concerning, and we are eager to contribute to a solution.

“That is why we are excited to work with Impact Wales to offer Jolly Classroom to every teacher in Wales for 12 months, free of charge. We believe this exclusive offer will provide teachers with a powerful, easy-to-use tool to engage their students in a multi-sensory approach to literacy, combining fun, interactivity, and proven methods.

“Jolly Classroom brings the magic of Jolly Phonics into the classroom, offering a full year’s programme, including over 75 hours of content and more than 150 lessons, designed to help every child succeed.”

The programme is split into three key steps and can be paced to suit your class.

Step One: Introduce the 42 letter sounds. This focuses on the five key skills of Jolly Phonics to teach reading and writing. This includes Learning The Letter Sounds, Letter Formation, Blending, Segmenting and Tricky Words

Step Two: Build on the initial teaching. This introduces new tricky words and alternative spellings of vowels.

Step Three: Consolidate the teaching. This consolidates the learning of Steps 1 and 2 by introducing new tricky words and spelling patterns, as well as long and short vowels.

• Using the code WALES you can get 12 months free access to Jolly Classroom.
• This offer can be redeemed from 25th September until 25th December 2024
• This will give all teachers in a school access to Jolly Classroom, and each teacher can have their own unique account and logins.
• You will not be asked to give any card details or payment info during this trial period.
• The trial expires 365 days after you set up your account.

• Website: https://www.jollyclassroom.com
• Sign Up Page: https://app.jollyclassroom.com/#/auth?
• Support: https://support.jollyclassroom.com

• Sign Up: https://support.jollyclassroom.com/signing-up
• Adding a teacher https://support.jollyclassroom.com/inviting-a-teacher
• Opening Classroom https://support.jollyclassroom.com/opening-jolly-classroom

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Intro Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qWbdnqbshlOnN5FRfSdQIlxxBGkBxbZR/view?usp=share_link

Walk Through Guides: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2avGtqkOC_qrooQqvKA86skGFBAwDXG4&si=H1LXWies0jwuf18V

Who are we? - We are Finola & Jane, Literacy & Numeracy specialists, with 45+ years of teaching, training & leadership experience between us.

What's our experience? - We have both worked for Welsh Government supporting schools & senior leaders across Wales. We have held senior leadership posts, delivered support to strategic education advisers, both hold school governor posts and have published curriculum support guidance with Oxford University Press...but if you need to know more visit our website for testimonials from schools we've worked with.

Why should you book our support? - Put simply, because we believe in impact. We do exactly what our name suggests. Our workshop keeps things simple and ensures school actions really work. Our focus is always on delivering measurable impact for pupils

Email: enquiries@impact.wales
Website: www.impact.wales
Phone: 02921 679140
Facebook: facebook.com/impactwales123
Twitter: @ImpactWales