ABSTRACT
In England we seem still to be struggling to understand how children learn and how they should be taught. In addition, political interventions have apparently served only to polarise the debates. Public concern about literacy levels is easily rallied and everyone claims to be an expert in how young children should be taught to read and to write. In this chapter only brief attention will initially be given to the political-academic divide, the history of early literacy education and the impact of the Rose Review (DfES 2006a). The ways in which babies and very young children encounter literacy at home and in communities seem to be fundamentally influencing factors in children’s later success and this will be considered, as well as children’s literacy experience before statutory school age.
