The Department of Education, Skills and Employment has released preliminary data on its free Year One Phonics Check, finding that teachers and parents are taking advantage of the free program to improve their understanding of how children learn to read.
The Department said preliminary data showed that since 2 August 13,211 people accessed the Phonics Check website; 8,800 people accessed the teacher-administered Year One Phonics Check site; 1,043 schools had users registered; and the Phonics Check for families was accessed 2,152 times.
Minister for Education, Dan Tehan encouraged more teachers and parents to use the Phonics Check and Literacy Hub website.
“Early usage data from the Literacy Hub is encouraging and suggests that parents and teachers are using our tools to better understand a child’s reading level and what extra support they may need to improve their reading,” Mr Tehan said.
“In South Australia, where they introduced a Year One Phonics Check in 2018, they have seen a dramatic improvement in how they are teaching children to read,” he said.
“I encourage all States and Territories to follow South Australia and introduce a compulsory phonics check.”
Mr Tehan said the teaching of phonics and reading instruction would be made mandatory for initial teacher education courses and the time allocated to literacy in those courses would be increased.
The Department’s Literacy Hub and Year One Phonics Check can be accessed at this PS News link.
