I’ve observed the rapid growth of teaching Reception and Year One children (the four and five year olds) a form of font which is neither a simple, sensible ‘print’ nor quality teaching of joined handwriting. This is instead of teaching
***Supporting teachers, learners and parents/carers with tangible, systematic, cumulative, content-rich, fit-for-purpose resources for home learning!
At the time of writing this post (January 2021), we are in the midst of a pandemic. The UK has gone into yet another ‘lockdown’ and many schools are closed or open only to the children of key workers and
***The Floppy’s Phonics SSP programme post lockdown: Suggestions for teachers, teaching assistants and tutors working with ‘home’ – filling alphabetic code gaps, catching up and intervention as necessary
In England we have a ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium’ which is Government Funded. All state-funded schools are eligible for pupils’ catch-up premium from Reception to Y11. Full information is available on the gov.uk page – click HERE If you are
***The Education Endowment Foundation is actively undermining the Government in England and here is an evidence trail to show this
This post is very important indeed. As anyone who follows me on Twitter may know, I, and others, have been very critical about the work of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) for some considerable time. The EEF actively undermines the
***Guest post – Online ESL tutor, Steve Mol, asks, ‘What is the purpose of language? Is it to reflect culture or to communicate universally?’
I made the acquaintance of Steve Mol via the internet. He has been very responsive and encouraging over a number of years. Here is some information about Steve and his work: Steve has always been fascinated with the English language.
***Pioneers – and guest post by teacher Rob Randel asking the question: ‘Does Curriculum for Wales leave reading to chance?’
Raising standards of foundational literacy in the English language is a team affair – and an international team at that. Within that bigger team, however, there are some stand-out individuals who understand the issues which continue to hold back research-informed
***PART TWO: ‘The harmful legacy of multi-cueing and its evolution into look-alike reading – a secondary school perspective’ by Jacqui Moller-Butcher
For PART ONE of this topic, introducing Jacqui Moller-Butcher and her work and worries about ‘look-alike reading’, click HERE. The harmful legacy of multi-cueing and its evolution into look-alike reading – a secondary school perspective by Jacqui Moller-Butcher, June 2020
***PART ONE – Guest post: Introducing Jacqui Moller-Butcher and her extraordinarily important findings (and suggestions) regarding ‘look-alike reading’ in KS 3
PART ONE: I’ve never met secondary English teacher Jacqui Moller-Butcher but I’ve known of her since she first raised worries about her observations of ‘look-alike reading’ in an online discussion via the blog of popular KS 3 blogger, David Didau.
***Guest post: Teacher Katreena Heywood describes her school’s adoption of the Floppy’s Phonics programme
Background to this guest post: I received a lovely thoughtful email from Katreena which was of course wonderful to receive – so I invited Katreena to write a guest post for my blog. I’m very grateful that she was willing
***Suggestions for organising ‘matched texts’ – that is, cumulative decodable reading books for beginners
IMPORTANT UPDATE JAN 2022: Abigail Steel and I have now recorded a webinar discussing this issues around ‘matched reading books’ – this refers to the scenario in England and it includes references to research: Micromanaging Matched Reading Books Webinar This post
***How to find the one-stop route to Debbie’s work and Phonics International Ltd’s resources, guidance, training and further information linked to the reading debate: syntheticphonics.com
Over the many years that my husband David and I have provided resources, information, guidance and training, David has constructed various websites – and then, poor man, he has to keep re-constructing them because of advances in technology – phew
***2018 – The emphasis in England on early language, literacy and literature continues with the establishment of 34 ‘English Hubs’, an ‘English Hubs Council’ and the ‘English Hubs Training Centre’ involving the official promotion and funding of high quality Systematic Synthetic Phonics programmes and training
Anyone who knows me appreciates that I consider myself to be first and foremost a ‘practitioner’, that is a very, very practical person! It was years of being a teacher, tutor, mother, special needs teacher, headteacher, teacher-trainer, phonics consultant, educational
***A Critique of the Publication ‘Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Six-Phase Teaching Programme’ (DfES 2007) – Evaluate, Compare and Contrast (Part 2)
Part Two – Question 1: Does ‘Letters and Sounds’ qualify as a programme? Whilst ‘Letters and Sounds’ is doubtless a very important landmark document – the consequence of a hugely significant historic set of circumstances (which I shall touch upon
***A Critique of the Publication ‘Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics Six-Phase Teaching Programme’ (DfES 2007) – Evaluate, Compare and Contrast (Part 1)
Part One – The Basis for the Critique Is further national and international perpetuation of the use of the ‘Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics Six-phase Teaching Programme’ as a programme in reality a current and
***How to Reduce Learning Difficulties – for Teachers and Learners Alike!
Sharing news and evidence-based information – essential for the teaching profession, and invaluable in the public domain Many years ago, when I took over the organisation of the UK Reading Reform Foundation and edited its newsletter, I wanted to get
***DfE and Ofsted – left hand, ‘write’ hand?
I suggest that the Department for Education’s official ‘criteria for assuring high-quality phonic work’ neglects to pay specific attention to handwriting – and Ofsted clearly hasn’t understood the principle of avoiding ‘circuitous routes’! References are made in the DfE’s official