It is pretty shocking to see the axing of Reading Recovery after 50+ years.

Despite the disinformation spread about Reading Recovery, the facts show it is a very well-researched, gold-standard, and internationally renowned intervention. Anyone who thinks Reading Recovery is teaching children to ‘guess’ does not understand the complexity of the teaching of reading, does not understand what Reading Recovery is, and/or is very misinformed. Reading is rocket science. The sciences of reading show there is no one-size-fits all reading programme. This is why the individualised programme that Reading Recovery offers to our most vulnerable learners is so valuable.

Reading Recovery has changed a lot in the last 4 years and now includes the explicit teaching of phonics, the use of decodable readers, and small group teaching in Early Literacy Support. My Reading Recovery training is what has made me and many others, the teachers we are today. This is where I learned to teach explicitly. It is the best teacher training on offer, and just losing that training alone, is a great loss not only for our students but also for our profession.

The vast majority of Reading Recovery critics have never seen a Reading Recovery lesson, don’t really know what it is, and don’t understand what we are losing. I have invited Minister Stanford and other politicians to come to my school and watch a lesson with me so they can see what it is they are getting rid of and to see Reading Recovery in action. It does not have to be Reading Recovery or Structured Literacy. In my kura and many others, it is both.