The Challenges of Teaching Phonics Beyond KS1

Phonics, the matching of sounds to an alphabetised code, has become the cornerstone of teaching children how to read. However, whilst phonics is extensively taught in EYFS and KS1, its role in KS2 and beyond is more complex, as barriers begin to present themselves.

Student Resistance and Stigma

By the time students reach KS2 or KS3, many associate phonics with early childhood learning. Those who still struggle may feel embarrassed or singled out, leading to resistance in engaging in phonics-based interventions.

This feeling is often exacerbated by the lack of age-appropriate resources for students. Often, phonics resources are aimed at younger children, and this can really damage self-esteem and motivation for older students who really need phonics instruction.

Seeking out age-appropriate resources is vital in overcoming this barrier. Finding appropriate books, such as Scholastic’s Striders, helps combat this issue. The books are designed for older students and allow them to apply their phonics knowledge to texts whose plot and interest level are pitched higher. After using them with my students, I can confirm that they have been both enjoyable and a supportive tool in helping these learners secure their phonics.

Teacher Training and Confidence

Another challenge to teaching phonics beyond KS1 is the lack of training available for phonics instruction. Many teachers, especially in secondary school settings, are not trained in systematic phonics instruction and may feel ill-equipped to deliver any sort of phonics intervention or teaching.

This also means that diagnosis can often be a problem, with staff being able to spot a weaker reader but unsure of how best to understand the issue that the individual student is facing.

As a former Year 5/6 teacher, I was lucky enough to receive weekly phonics training as part of the CPD package my school provided for staff. I now work in a secondary school as a Teacher of Reading, delivering phonics and reading interventions to support struggling readers. I also upskill staff, providing weekly bitesize CPD tips and supporting colleagues through whole-school strategies.

Seeking out CPD is vital, and there are numerous options out there to develop your practice. Equipping a specialist member of staff with this knowledge who can then support across school is a powerful tool and ensures that phonics can blossom in the realms of KS2 and KS3.

Curriculum Constraints

Curriculum is the holy grail of teaching – it powers the education that we provide and is meticulously planned to ensure that core knowledge and skills are embedded into the long-term memory.

This often means that phonics interventions become secondary, as teachers don’t want students missing out on important instruction and lessons. However, if a student is struggling to read, how much of the lesson are they actively understanding and participating in?

Striking a balance between lesson time and purposeful intervention time is crucial here. We work using a model of three 20-minute sessions a week for struggling readers. This delivers pacy, focused sessions and ensures students never miss a whole lesson. It also allows for spaced retrieval in relation to phonics, and numerous opportunities for focused, direct phonics instruction.

Resources such as the Striders books allow for part of the session to link to reading fluency and comprehension – a vital skill for all readers that builds on phonics. Using a phonetically phonically matched book allows students to apply their phonics knowledge and help build up their reading fluency. Within this time block, it ensures that students are focused and there is a strong purpose to the session.

Multilingual Learners

Often, older students who need phonics instruction are multilingual learners (a more positive term to describe students who are EAL). This is due to the rules of English phonics often being different to their own languages – especially those languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet.

Having some awareness of how phonics and pronunciation works in other languages is a good starting point, as you can pre-empt a misconception and address this early on in their phonics instruction.

Examples include the pronunciation of w_ and _j in English against German, or the existence of the French ch against the three sounds it can make in English. Equipping yourself with this knowledge also means you can build up a student’s confidence.

Correcting a student by saying ‘I know you say this sound as _ in X language, but in English we say it as ’ shows empathy to why they may be struggling and boosts their confidence. Creating a master document of the most common languages in your school and highlighting some key phonemic differences is an easy way to begin this process.

Conclusion

Overall, the teaching of phonics outside of KS1 has improved dramatically over the last few years. It is a complex issue that requires careful consideration, planning and a strategic overview to ensure curriculum isn’t compromised.

Phonics is an essential tool for all readers to navigate the world and it is important that educators get this right for students. Addressing some common issues, such as having age-appropriate resources or accessing further training is a great way to overcome barriers and ensure that all students leave school being able to read and write.

Mr Levick is a phonics specialist in secondary school and former primary English subject lead.

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Striders are a brand-new collection of 32 carefully structured high-low decodable books for striving readers ages 7+. Having identified an obvious need for phonics help for children beyond age 7 via our research into the teaching of reading, we have created this series to include age-appropriate themes and content while still being phonically decodable.

• These expertly levelled consolidation readers are perfect for sending home to support classroom teaching with each set of books revising the sounds found in previous sets.

• The series of phonically decodable readers includes diverse and inclusive artwork and photography and includes features such as chapters and recurring characters (fiction) and contents and headings (non-fiction) to be more consistent with what their friends and peers are reading.

• Each book also contains ‘how to use the book’ notes to help an adult support the child’s reading along with a character page for fiction titles to orient the reader or a contents page for non-fiction titles.

• The fiction books are split into four mini-series with reoccurring characters while the non-fiction are stand-alone titles with a summary page at the end to encourage discussion. 32 Readers for Phases 2–5 (Set 2–13) with 13 Fiction titles and 19 Non-Fiction titles. Available separately and in packs.

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