Page 253 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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Given the successful adoption of phonics checks in other states and increasing evidence of its success in schools across the United Kingdom and elsewhere, will phonics checks be used or considered for use in ACT primary schools to identify students who are at risk of falling behind in literacy?
You answered that with a definite:
No, they will not.
The recent Productivity Commission report on government services in education shows that there has been a consistent decline over the past eight years in literacy. Minister, what steps will you take to stop this decline?
MS BERRY: I have also in this place described the literacy programs that are being carried out within our school communities. I described during estimates hearings the English literacy programs by Christine Topfer, a world-renowned literacy expert in delivering programs in supporting and coaching for school communities, particularly in the earlier years, to understand how to work with students who learn differently, particularly those who might have dyslexia or other learning needs, to particularly make sure that school teachers have the professional learning and development that they need to be able to support every student in the classroom.
I have listened very carefully to people who have talked about the kind of phonics testing that Ms Lawder refers to and I have also listened very carefully to the profession and their union about what they need to ensure that every child, regardless of how they learn, gets the supports that they need. And I have heard very positive outcomes as a result of that specialised training and coaching from people like Christine Topfer who is well renowned and an expert in this space on the difference it has made to the teachers being able to do that work but also to the learning experience for students in their schools.
MS LAWDER: Minister, what objections do you have to phonics checks?
MS BERRY: I have not been convinced that a phonics check, in the way that it has been described to me, would be a successful outcome and provide the kinds of learning and teaching development that our school students need. What I have heard from the teaching profession is that the best way for them to be able to support students is to get professional development for themselves and the profession, to have an English and literacy program that is all-encompassing and not just a test which is too late in any case. Those programs that support an assessment happen early on in a child’s learning.
In addition to that, I should refer to the ACT government’s universal access to preschool education and its expansion to three-year-olds. All of the research shows, all of the experts say, and the early childhood sector and preschool teachers have been talking about—
Ms Lawder: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
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