If it takes two years to master only around 100 grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences, children can pass the Phonics Screening Check (which only assesses those), but at least one in four will still be unable to read age-appropriate texts with fluency and comprehension, or spell words accurately and know when they ‘look right’. This intuitive recognition develops when words are stored in the orthographic lexicon rather than memorised as whole words.

These children need opportunities to explore the full orthographic code, comprising more than 350 correspondences, and this is far easier for young learners when the words appear in stories that genuinely interest them. As they progress towards self-teaching, by around Book 52, they begin reading to learn. At that point, most of what children learn about reading comes through reading itself.

This is why it is essential that children reach the self-teaching phase by the age of seven, and that they want to read. Reading for pleasure leads to deep reading. Most of what skilled readers do is acquired through implicit learning, not explicit instruction. Teachers in England are rarely told this, and many believe the DfE’s assurance that validated phonics programmes "provide sufficient support for all children to become skilled readers". They don't. Teachers deserve training that shows them what the science of reading actually tells us. Children need a TA to support them 1:1 from term 1 of Reception  Speedie Readies prevents the dyslexia paradox. The earlier we screen and support the better.