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School teachers say they are trained to teach children to read using a “balanced literacy” or “whole language” approach, which fails some children. Most students started school knowing “about five sounds”, and structured literacy helped them engage with letters and words, before being expected to read a book, Anderson said. Like most primary schools nationwide, the school used an approach known as balanced literacy as its main way of teaching children to read, using Ministry of Education provided “Ready to Read” books. A “wave” of opinion was coming from teachers that balanced literacy wasn’t working for enough children, said Alborn.