Teaching children to read is notoriously tricky and theories about how to teach it are constantly evolving. Reporter Charlotte Hume sees how it is being taught in two inner city primary schools, one in London and one in Birmingham. She gets to grips with the latest techniques and strategies used in each school aimed at driving up reading ability. She follows two six-year olds, one at each school, who have learnt to read in different ways. Esther is a strong reader who has been through a rigorous systematic phonics programme, while Haseeb is struggling to learn to read and has been placed on the intervention programme Reading Recovery for twenty-weeks. Charlotte also finds out what current research is telling us about what is working in the attempt to continue the raising of literacy standards in primary education.

Video Series: Professional Knowledge
Release Date 2010