Children taught synthetic phonics can see their reading improve in just two weeks

The study by a think-tank showed that primary school pupils increased their reading ages by nearly two years in as many weeks when they were given intensive "synthetic phonics" lessons.

The back-to-basics method involves teaching the letter sounds of English and how to blend them together to work out unfamiliar words.

Civitas, which carried out the study, said phonics had the potential to end the "apartheid" between the educational haves and have-nots.

It said thousands of children had been consigned to the educational scrapheap by the failed reading schemes promoted in schools over the past decade.

Synthetic phonics was not made compulsory in schools until last September, despite evidence from Scotland that it can transform literacy standards.

For the research, Civitas held a summer "supplementary school" with the help of charitable donations. Its pupils were 15 children between six and eight, all from disadvantaged areas.

Many had already fallen behind in their reading.

The youngsters were given intensive lessons in synthetic phonics for a fortnight using a course designed by literacy authority Irina Tyk.

After two weeks of whole-class tuition, as opposed to onetoone, the average improvement in reading age was one year and nine months.

The report said: "The progress made by the pupils was so striking that the project has decided to make the course textbook, Irina Tyk's The Butterfly Book, available for the first time in a commercial format."

Synthetic phonics was eclipsed during the Sixties and Seventies

by theories which required pupils to memorise whole words.

The Government did put some synthetic phonics into its flagship literacy hour but critics claim that for years it was mixed with less effective methods.

In a dramatic climbdown, ministers last year put a legal duty on schools to use synthetic phonics "fast and first" when teaching four and five-year-olds.

The Civitas report said the technique should also be used with older children who are slow readers.

Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education at Civitas, said: "Teaching children to read via synthetic phonics can bridge the gap between those from disadvantaged and advantaged homes like no other method."

Her report goes on to say: "Weak reading lies at the heart of the educational apartheid between the advantaged and the disadvantaged, and of England's low social mobility.

"The inability to read properly is the single greatest handicap to progress in school and adult life.

"Poor achievement, related poor behaviour in secondary schools and the vast increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training connect directly to poor literacy teaching at primary school level."

Children who shun junk food in favour of fruit, vegetables and oily fish do 11 per cent better in exams, a study claims.

The survey of more than 10,000 children found unhealthy diets were linked with poor performance as well as bad behaviour.

The research was carried out by Patrick Holford, visiting professor of mental health and nutrition at Teesside University and funded by the organic food firm Organix.

Professor Holford, who is also director of the Food for the Brain Foundation, said: "The brain is 60 per cent fat.

"Children who eat good fats, from raw nuts, seeds and oily fish, double their chances of high performance."