ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses on how literacy policies in English-speaking countries have developed over the past thirty years, with phonics gradually becoming the preferred teaching method. In St Hilda teachers made space for children to engage with literacy in a variety of motivating and self-directed ways. It introduces two distinct versions of phonics: analytic and synthetic. Synthetic phonics teaches children knowledge of how sounds and letters correspond. As a result, children's attention is not drawn to other strategies which have been found to benefit reading. In analytic phonics, children are taught explicitly to be aware of rhymes and to use these to support their reading. In fairness to a synthetic programme such as Read Write Inc., it uses rhymes. The children in Tulip class certainly learned about rhymes. They did so through their singing and reading of stories.
