Warning as schools 'shun traditional reading methods' Chris McGovern, a former head teacher and chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, accused the teaching establishment of "putting ideology of the 1980s ahead of the best interests of children." "For the last 20-to-25 years, children have been failed by methods of teaching reading that do not work," he said. But teaching unions accused the Government of trying to "ride roughshod" over schools, insisting that staff should be free to choose which teaching methods to adopt. Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The Government is determined that all those authorities and schools which do not see the merits of synthetic phonics will be bullied, harassed, named and shamed until they feel they have no choice but to accept the latest dictat from above. This is extraordinary behaviour from a department whose ministers have made much of trusting the profession and allowing those who know to get on with it. Last year, ministers announced that funding would be available for schools to spend on new teaching materials and training sessions linked to phonics. The programme was launched in September and schools can claim up to £3,000 to buy products and training until March 2013. So far, around one-in-five primaries - 3,211 - have taken advantage of subsidised teaching products and almost 1,000 have booked phonics training for staff. But the DfE warned that thousands more schools were failing to adopt the scheme, raising concerns that they were shunning phonics altogether. It named 10 local councils where less than 82 per cent of pupils - the national average - leave primary school with a proper grasp of reading yet many schools have failed to take up the offer of phonics products. In Medway, Kent, where more than one-in-five children fail to read properly at the age of 11, just six per cent of schools have bought phonics materials and only four per cent have sent staff on training. The DfE also identified nine other councils - Luton, Portsmouth, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Sheffield, Suffolk, Hull, Norfolk and Slough - where a small minority of schools have adopted phonics schemes despite registering below-average reading results. Mr Gibb said: "This is a chance for schools to gain extra funding to improve reading standards so I am naturally concerned at the number of areas where few schools have not yet taken the opportunity to do so. The money is available until March next year so there is still time to claim it. But every week that goes by is another week that children are missing out on the best possible teaching of reading.