Students at Victorian state schools will all be taught reading using phonics from 2025

ABC NEWS (Australia)

All Victorian state schools will embrace phonics from next year as the government tries to improve reading levels in prep to year 2 students across the state.

Transcript

00:00It's a new approach to learning to read, and it's a real page turner.

00:06We're going to do our phonics now.

00:09Yeah!

00:10From next year, all state schools will be expected to teach a system called synthetic phonics

00:16to help students simplify and decode words.

00:19And it's already proving popular at some schools.

00:23We do see that growth of our students really quickly.

00:25Say lamb.

00:26Lamb.

00:27Without L, what's left?

00:29L.

00:30Phonics will be taught from prep through to grade 2 for at least 25 minutes per day

00:36and aims to prevent vulnerable children falling behind.

00:39Say cat.

00:41Cat.

00:42A strong focus of the system is on sounds and letters,

00:46where words are broken down to their individual components

00:50rather than learning through immersion.

00:52When schools move away from that to a more structured, explicit approach,

00:56then we see a significant uplift in children's reading and spelling performance

01:02and also, in many cases, in student wellbeing.

01:05There is only one clear approach, and that is to put phonics at the heart of your reading program.

01:12It comes after more than a quarter of Victoria's students

01:16failed to hit new NAPLAN proficiency standards for literacy last year.

01:20It is simply unacceptable that it has taken a decade for the Labor government

01:25to introduce phonics, evidence-based learning and explicit instructions in our classrooms.

01:31Some principals are worried the explicit model could hurt students' love of literature.

01:36The emotions are there.

01:38People have some very, very strong belief around what they are doing is working,

01:42but this is trying to get a greater balance.

01:44Parents over time are going to see that there's going to be less need

01:47for them to be paying for expensive intervention and tutoring services.

01:54Teachers are hoping the change will spell out a brighter reading future.

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