ABSTRACT
Everyone agrees that learning to read is a good thing. But there’s less agreement about the best way of achieving it. Because most of us don’t remember learning to read, it can be easy to imagine there’s nothing to it. But it’s one of the most hotly debated topics in education – with its own bewildering jargon. Phonics? Whole language? Onset and rime? For parents and teachers helping with those first simple texts, it can seem a long way from the squiggles on the page to Harry Potter.
