Lost for words - lost for consistency

Having only caught the end of the Dispatches special on Channel 4 covering the challenges getting people to read there were a couple of observations that came to mind. The first is the inconsistency in the support for phonics with some saying it is not the right approach and others putting all their belief in the system. My son is going through it and so it all feels very emotive listening to any views about it.

But the second thing was the activity of the Scottish community that had turned around its reading problems. What was interesting and can surely be mimicked by others was the approach that the library had taken. Facing up to the possibility that in a generation its aisles would be empty it got the entertainers in, devised activities to draw in the children and seemed to have really understood the need to put the library back in the heart of the community – a very successful move it appeared to be as well.