A Small Study Comparing National Literacy Strategy Progression In Phonics  Tuition (PIPs)

with Sounds~Write Tuition (S~W)

 

 

Staff in a two-form entry primary school, Simon de Senlis P. S. in Northamptonshire, were concerned about the number of pupils in Key Stage One falling behind in basic literacy skills after two years following the NLS PIPs programme. In order to throw some light on their situation the head teacher sent one of their Year One class teachers on a one-week Sounds~Write training course last June so that the S~W (linguistic phonic) approach could be compared with PIPs.

 

 

During the first week of the autumn term 2005, both Y1 classes were tested on the Burt Reading Test and the Young’s Parallel Spelling Test. One class then continued with its PIPs tuition whilst the other switched to S~W. After five weeks tuition the children were all re-tested to check on their progress. The data collected was examined in two ways: (1) by splitting the pupils into three groups according to whether their test scores were above, at or below their actual ages, and; (2) by examination of the progress made according to the test norms. The results are shown below.

 

 

(1) Comparison of test norms to chronological ages.

 

Reading Ages	Y1 class taught using PIPs (27 pupils)		Y1 class taught using S~W (24 pupils)
	Start of term	After 5 weeks teaching	Start of term	After 5 weeks teaching
Above chronological age	13(48%)	12(44½%)	8(33%)	14(58%)
At chronological age	2(7½%)	2(7½%)	4(17%)	5(21%)
Below chronological age	12(44½%)	13(48%)	12(50%)	5(21%)

 

 

Spelling Ages	Y1 class taught using PIPs (27 pupils)		Y1 class taught using S~W (24 pupils)
	Start of term	After 5 weeks teaching	Start of term	After 5 weeks teaching
Above chronological age	8(29½%)	13(48%)	9(37½%)	15(62½%)
At chronological age	17(63%)	12(43½%)	14(58%)	9(37½%)
Below chronological age	2(7½%)	2(7½%)	1(4%)	0(0%)

 

 

(2) Comparison of gains made on test norms.

 

 

	READING			SPELLING
Gains/Losses after 5 weeks teaching	Y1 class taught using PIPs	Y1 class taught using S~W		Y1 class taught using PIPs	Y1 class taught using S~W
8 months					3
7 months		2			3
6 months		3		2
5 months	1	1		2	2
4 months		6			2
3 months	1	3		2	2
2 months	7	2		3	2
1 month	4	5		4	1
0 months	13	2		11	8
-1 month				2
-2 months	1
-3 months				1	1
Average Gain	0.9 months	3.3 months		1.2 months	3.0 months

 

 

For those preferring a more visual representation, these results are shown again in the charts below.

 

 

In respect of those pupils being taught by Sounds~Write whose test scores had not improved over the five weeks, staff noted the following two changes in their approach to the tests.

 

• They had started sounding out letters accurately when trying to read.

 

• They were starting to write some letters accurately when trying to spell.

 

In other words, after a relatively short exposure to the programme, all these children were starting to recognise the essential underlying alphabetic nature of the English writing system.

 

Comments

Although from a scientific point of view we would have liked this experiment to continue for a much longer period, school staff concluded that it would not be fair to the pupils to continue teaching them by the National Literacy Strategy PIPs programme and both classes are now following the Sounds~Write approach. School staff are organising to visit other schools where Sounds~Write is already established and in the future are hoping to send all Key Stage One staff for Sounds~Write training.

 

Whilst reflecting on the results above it should be noted that the class originally being taught Sounds~Write are subject to a job-share situation with the teacher trained in Sounds~Write only actually working with them for two days each week.

 

We also note the following comment made on one of our Course Evaluation Sheets recently completed by a teacher who attended a course that was run on five consecutive Thursdays down in Kent.

 

 

	Which part(s) of the Sounds~Write course did you enjoy most and why?   All of it – FANTASTIC!   We already used Progression in Phonics and felt that the children were making good progress – so when starting the course I was only slightly optimistic that it would make much difference. However, over the last 5 weeks since I introduced it to my class I have seen huge progress and am converted!