Everyone I talk to IRL in education is deeply disappointed in Labour. The only positive responses I see are a handful on social media.

Many congratulations Laura! Xx

I'm going to Kirkcaldy!

There's a lot of money being made by commercial companies around phonics schemes. It has had some very virulent advocates over the last decade.

Not really but there's been panics about research showing catastrophic drops in reading for pleasure and also around uptake of English at A level.

Children with supportive parents and flexible teachers tend to do fine so I wouldn't worry too much. But it's not proved to be some kind of magic solution although it has generally made things more structured and consistent.

And we're seeing literacy rates are stubbornly static at the end of KS2 despite all the money poured into schemes and training. I'm not averse to phonics but it's going back to the problematic days where we used to talk about children 'barking at print' whereas comprehension obviously matters too.

And increasingly we're hearing children say that they 'hate phonics' because if this. Plus some adverse side effects around holding children back who are ready to leap ahead of the scheme. Plus for those children who struggle with learning phonetically there doesn't seem to be much adjustment.

So what reception teachers are often telling me is that phonics input has become over formalised which means the children are static for increasing periods of time. The pressure from Ofsted and the DfE via the phonics screening check means that other aspects of development risk getting sidelined.

Yes although they actually mean the end of reception because the measure is the EYFSP.

Well you say that but with the current focus on attendance some schools literally turn up to collect some kids.

I mean even (especially) in places like China people use VPNs. I don't know what they're thinking but way to alienate the youth vote.

It's complicated but in England we're seeing some of the issues created by going too far in the opposite direction and we still haven't 'solved' literacy.

This is the worst kind of categorisation of children and young people into 'types' and it goes against all the values of what education is meant to be about. Can we not actually think about causes rather than yet more ridiculous targets?