Written question asked by Lord Gove (Conservative) on Wednesday, 23 April 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 25 April 2008. It was answered by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour) on Friday, 9 May 2008 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Literacy: Teaching Methods

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which reading programmes are approved by his Department for the teaching of synthetic phonics.

Answer: High quality, systematic phonics, as advocated by the Rose review, should be the prime approach for teaching children to read.The Department does not approve commercial phonics teaching programmes. To help schools and early years settings in choosing the appropriate phonics support we have provided a set of core criteria that define the key features of an effective phonics teaching programme. The core criteria build directly on Jim Rose's recommendations.Schools and settings are able to access self-assessments of commercial phonics resources on the Department's phonics website at"www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/."However, the existence of publishers' self assessments on this site does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of the products they represent.

Secondary information