Whilst schools don’t have to use a validated phonics scheme, it does take a pretty brave (and time-rich) school to go it alone in the world of phonics. Since 2022, 9 out of 10 primary schools have used a validated scheme.
In 2023, a Tapper got in touch to suggest we find out the most frequently used validated phonics schemes.
Might the results have changed in the past 2 years? We thought it was time to check…
Which schemes are most used?
We put the top 5 most-used schemes (as identified in our 2023 research) into our April Brand Tracker.
As in 2023, we found the scheme used most often by schools (by some way) are Read Write Inc and Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. These two schemes are used by more than half of schools.
Both schemes are also popular with teachers… So much so, they were both awarded Teacher Tapp Gold Awards for having more than 90% users recommend them.
Are other schemes catching up?
Whilst the top two schemes have a significant lead on the rest of the market, awareness of the other schemes is growing – Essential Letters and Sounds saw a big increase in awareness over the past two years.
Likewise, teacher recommendations are growing for the other schemes – Twinkl Phonics saw a higher rise in recommendations from 2023.
A final thought on the ‘market’
For teachers, accurately learning and using an SSP scheme can be a substantial undertaking. You’d be forgiven for not wanting to change once you get the hang of a particular programme!
So, it’s possible that as time goes on, we could see a consolidation of the schemes on offer with those that are not as popular eventually withdrawing their programme. Whether this is right or not is for others to decide, but here at Teacher Tapp we’ll make sure we keep an eye on how things change over time.
