Children who are taught using phonics can achieve very high results in reading and spelling.

A new study has found that pupils who learn using the method are an average of two years ahead of their expected level.

Phonics is a method of teaching that sees children pronouncing sounds rather than individual letters or whole words and in a small-scale study, seven-year-olds were an average 28 months ahead of their actual age for reading, while phonics also helped them advance 21 months ahead of their age for spelling.

The test was conducted by educational psychologist Dr Marlynne Grant on a group of 30 children who had learned to read using "systematic synthetic phonics" between the ages of four and seven and the results reported in the Guardian. The highest-performing primary school pupil in the tests was a boy aged seven years and five months, who managed to achieved a level of 13 years and nine months for reading and 14 years and nine months for spelling.

Dr Grant stated: "The use of a systematic synthetic phonics programme was shown to give children a flying start with their reading, writing and spelling, it was effective for catch-up, it reduced special educational needs across the schools and it enabled higher numbers of children to transfer to their secondary schools well equipped to access the curriculum." 

More evidenced showed that children were not deterred from reading, with many picking it up very quickly and showing signs of confidence.

Phonics was initially viewed with scepticism by teaching unions when it was first introduced by the coalition government in 2010, but many of those people in Darryl Mydat