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Celestial was teaching something new for Long Beach Unified: phonics.

Pupils are taught using a system called the morphological approach, which uses a series of icons to make a visual link between meaning and spelling, instead of students being taught using phonics.

But many schools have also used a rival curriculum called the “whole language” approach, which generally de-emphasizes phonics.

For over a decade, schools in England have had to teach reading to the youngest children using a method called systematic synthetic phonics.

As a classroom teacher but also phonics and PE lead, Miss Packer felt unable to properly fulfil any of her roles - often working well into the evening.