Learn and practise the sh sound! Help the wizards to make sh words and sentences in this fun Phonics guide from BBC Bitesize.

Good news: the New York Times ran an article on reading instruction on its front page. Bad news: as with other recent coverage, the piece overlooks a huge and fundamental aspect of the problem.

But whether or not the test stays, phonics seems firmly embedded in English schools. “It’s very rare that you get a piece of education practice that you stick with and push over a number of ...