The pupil's first lesson was on the Wednesday before the Easter holiday. His second was after the holiday, ie three weeks later. After a reminder of how he needed to think about reading, he re-read the cover and initial sentences on the book we'd worked on, referring back to my record of the first lesson for two words only, and needing one additional reminder to use what the letters were telling him, and not to guess. He then learned to read several more lines of the same book, and we moved to reading the notices around the library, which had been labelled by teachers with words such as items, categories and materials. The pupil was able to read them after teaching, and his headteacher watched, very impressed.
A reflection from this is that, in order to read in English, we need to know not only what letters usually tell us, or can tell us, but what they represent in each word. The French scholar Nina Catach has described this as " a word-based system" as opposed to the French system, which she saw as grammatically based. It certainly poses its own problems - but within them lies the basis of their solution.