Phonics is a key pillar of primary school teaching today, but that wasn't always the case...

For most of her life Mona McNee worked as a geography teacher, but after retiring she committed herself to educational reform, focusing on literacy skills and promoting reading programmes that used phonics as a foundation. This video features two lectures, one recorded in 1987 and the other in 2001, both filmed simply in domestic settings.

In the first lecture, Mrs McNee lays out her personal experiences with her son that led her to dedicate her life to phonics reading programmes and lays out the statistics behind her argument that, despite improvements in quality of life following the Second World War, Britain's literacy standards are in decline. She then argues how phonics could improve literacy standards and illustrates how this system differs from the model then used in schools, before sharing phonics-based learning resources and activities that parents could use with their children.

In the 2001 lecture, McNee offers an update on literacy standards in the English speaking world, focusing on the political backdrop in the United States and the United Kingdom - including the 1988 Education Reform Act, which introduced the National Curriculum and the Key Stage objectives for schools. She also runs through more resources, activities for parents and teachers to use, and shares more statistics and arguments for adopting a phonics approach in schools.

The phonics approach to teaching reading breaks down words into individual sounds (as McNee demonstrates, "cuh ah tuh" for "cat") and moves away from the 'whole word' approach that was common in British schools in the 20th century. Today, it is the primary method of teaching kids to read in schools across the country - but it still remains a controversial and fiercely-debated area of discussion.