Here is a short video clip where the current chief inspector for England - Sir Michael Wilshaw - commentates on a primary school with fab children and teachers working hard to raise standards.
Now, as a teaching profession, we bang on about VAK teaching and learning - that is, visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or 'multi-sensory' teaching and learning.
With this in mind, watch the video more than once with an eye on all the visual displays - what do you see on the walls of the classrooms?
To be frank - not much.
Not much by way of truly supportive, plain, simple information for supporting literacy.
We see some neat and tidy displays - we see a lot of bright background displays - lots of colour - we see some 'celebration of children's work' - we see lots of empty spaces around a few examples of work - but what else?
Now, there may well be great frieze posters, alphabetic code charts, alphabets, spelling word banks, handwriting support and so on - but we certainly don't see it.
I have flagged this issue up because it is not untypical of primary schools. Years ago, the teaching unions removed the job of 'display' from teachers and listed it as something that teachers should not have to do. The very notion and act of 'visual display' was diminished by the teaching unions themselves. How crazy is that?
Also, we don't really see the children themselves 'doing' the phonics routines - we see adults leading the processes of reading and spelling.
Good phonics teaching is about very high-quality teacher 'modelling' but also about children being engaged in the processes - to the point where the teacher steps back and the children 'do' the processes first - this is about 'engagement' of the children.
I have no doubt, honestly, that great work is going on in this school.
There are two questions that immediately spring to mind for me:
1) Could it be so much better but the staff are unaware because they are, to all intents and purposes, doing well already?
2) Does Sir Michael Wilshaw REALLY know what to look for in terms of excellent and fit-for-purpose VAK provision when it comes to phonics and literacy?
Hmm.....
