September 22, 2019 2:24 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
Notwithstanding knee operations, a case of sepsis and a broken arm, I have, over the last few months, been following the education scene closely. We appear at this moment, more interested in issues not remotely connected to education its content and its standards. It is critical to remember children are children, their childhood is sacrosanct and their schooling must never be hijacked or impeded for adult causes. We are the ones who must fight world issues. A child’s place is in school learning and growing. Sadly the situation appears to be driven – if not specifically at least substantially by parents and politics rather than students’ needs to progress them through primary to secondary and then tertiary study. My working...
August 20, 2018 1:20 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
On this occasion let me dispel some myths regarding tutors. Firstly that only the wealthy can afford them. Nonsense, for most of my sixty year career in tutoring I never charged a penny but succeeded in teaching, via the magical phonic sounds, numerous children to read. Secondly, that tutors are used mainly to advance bright children beyond their peer groups. This, you are asked to believe, is to enable those already achieving children to scoop prizes by enhancing their results and to win places at top sixth form colleges and Russell Group universities. Wrong! My tutoring over all these years has never included bright children wanting to be brighter. I have, however, had extremely clever children who have missed out...
May 2, 2018 4:15 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
As a fairly firm traditionalist I rejoice in today’s acceptance, albeit grudgingly, that old methods do work. One of the most disturbing elements in the classroom over the past 50 years has been the arrangement of tables. In most cases up to ten children are sitting with their backs to the teacher. No eye contact and scant attention to a lesson unless the child opts to physically move his chair and tune in. Recent studies have proved that formal rows, with chalk and talk front of class teaching, produces formidably excellent results and is favoured by many successful schools. What is more these schools, frequently with a policy of strict discipline, can provide a quiet and structured atmosphere. This both...
July 24, 2017 3:47 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
Stress. Pressure. No longer the effects of extreme and unbearable suffering like fire, flood and earthquake but reduced now to buzz words, cliches. Children are stressed, business men and women are pressured, teachers, doctors, shop assistants, holiday makers, models, dogs, cats and horses – all stressed. All under such demanding pressure they barely cope. And yet so many people endured two world wars, lived with the constant threat of bombs dropping on schools, homes and places of work. They fed their families on pitiful rations, scrimped for clothes, had inadequate heating and lived day after day with the news of the death of yet another family member or friend. Were they stressed? Were they pressured? Yes of course they were...
March 19, 2017 2:13 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
Once again Grammar schools are on the agenda and once again, with the predicability of a snowflake melting in hot sun, all those dangerously divisive voices have been raised in protest. All I can say is that this country needs its brains and if your child has the chance to go to a Grammar it will be a golden opportunity to receive the best education leading to the finest opportunities life has to offer. Above all, Grammar school placings must be won on merit alone. My Primary school was tiny and many, many miles from the city. The parents were predominately dirt poor farm workers, the school library a shelf of very old books and attendance random at best. The...
February 20, 2017 4:44 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
Recently it was reported that parents are going back to school, not to begin or complete degrees, but for an even better reason. They want to catch up with their children. Education has changed, it has leapt forward dramatically in an effort to repair the damage of past years. During those years I taught English to Italian and Spanish teenagers who could spot an adverbial, define a gerund, write a perfect complex sentence and parse it with ease. Their knowledge of our language was astounding while our teenagers had barely progressed beyond the very basic nouns and verbs. As we move forward to catch up, parents are feeling left behind. Well done those mums and dads who, instead of complaining...
January 20, 2017 10:24 am
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
Time gentlemen please! No, I’m not referring to pub closing but, more accurately, to the closing of the school time table. Schools were actively teaching small groups of children in Greek and Roman days, but schools, as we know them, date from around the 16th century. From earliest times the basic idea has been to educate children in the 3Rs – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Today we can look back on vast numbers of architects,scientist, judges, poets, mathematicians, and all the great and wonderful thinkers who have emerged to lead the world, all educated under the 3R system. It has worked extraordinarily well, until now. More and more frequently strident pressure groups are demanding their own politics du jour become...
December 18, 2016 6:44 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
After a hiatus of 4 weeks I am back. While Grammar Schools continue to divide political parties, such reasons being given by nay-sayers are not even remotely near the mark. Their argument centres mainly on the fact that bright pupils from the community are needed to form the top stratum of Comprehensives/Academies. They claim those very bright children will inspire the slower pupils to achieve. Of course this is nonsense. Our country needs its bright minds and those bright minds, indubitably, develop and flower more vividly at Grammar Schools. These establishments give clever children from poor backgrounds an opportunity to reach the top fruit on life’s tree. Grammars have teachers as committed to excellence and attendance as those found at...
November 11, 2016 3:55 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
From the Times Educational Supplement of 5 November 2016, the headline: ‘Schoolgirls suffer in silence about their struggle to read.’ Leaving aside the emotive verb ‘suffer,’ more accurately applied to children in war zones, the writer is referring to the fact children, apparently girls in particular, thanks to phonics can now read every word but not comprehend every word. As my readers will know I have trumpeted phonics for 57 years, but in today’s parlance it is a no-brainer that phonic excellence goes hand in hand with dictionary skills. I would have assumed any school worth its salt would be providing dictionaries/iPads to enable their pupils to achieve excellence in both text understanding and analysis, plus word knowledge. In fact,...
August 18, 2016 3:50 pm
Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge
”Come one, come all!” the barkers yell and crowds flock, drowned in the colour, the noise and the pizazz of the fair. What a shame we can’t do that with reading and yet the final rewards are not just hoop-la prizes or cheap fluffy toys, they are life-changing skills and, for small children, will establish a happy, confident and secure childhood and future. Let us proceed with the next step. Following the sound alphabet and those few sight words, your child can easily read: ‘ ”It is a beautiful little pup,” she told Jed. ”Can you let it come to my house? I can be kind to him and let him nap in the sun on your old rug.” ‘...
