April 2026: A couple of years ago, notably nearly every request I received for live, virtual teacher-training was for secondary schools in the UK! I always offer a gratis Zoom chat beforehand to discuss the context and perceived needs of the school – during which I encourage them to do their own training and guide them through what they could use and the steps they can take to readily achieve this.
I receive emails from teachers internationally who have used the Phonics International programme to great effect. Sometimes they simply want to share their findings with me and we end up having a very mutually-informative and heartwarming (free) Zoom chat (I do these frequently). But occasionally they raise their worries with me that an incoming headteacher intends to bring in a new phonics programme according to their own experience or ‘word of mouth’ about the latest programme in fashion (and despite extraordinary success established in the school over years with Phonics International). Sometimes a ‘new’ programme can be good for a school – but not if the new programme isn’t as good or better than the established programme. This is not a small issue – and it’s one that is close to my heart as I have found for many years, and still do, that so many in the teaching profession appear ill-equipped, or even unwilling, to transparently ‘evaluate and compare‘ programmes, practices and outcomes or likely outcomes.
An example of the kind of messages I receive is this one from Kate sent on 24th April:
“My class had 8 15/16 year old boys who are all Autistic and ADHD. I have 3 non readers in my class. In September I rolled out Phonics International to all my students.
I have now managed to secure 5 boys as free readers.
The 3 non readers can now identify all 44 basic sounds.
They can read simple texts through decoding.
We are now on with the two prong approach to developing their skills more widely.
I would be so excited to work with you – (as a dyslexic teacher Phonics is so important).
If you want to arrange a call – I would be happy to speak with you!”
Kate and I have since spoken via Zoom and hopefully we’ll have an ongoing relationship. She asked if we can do some A1/A2 pre-printed posters for each class of the English Alphabetic Code which we’ll look into. We did do printed posters like this in the past – and gave them all away at conferences!
This is the Two-pronged approach Kate refers to.
Here are the videos, resources and steps I suggest literacy leaders and special needs coordinators may find helpful for in-school training and professional development:
- ALWAYS start with a tangible understanding of the complexities of the English alphabetic code. You will find a short 16 minute explanatory video and access to many versions of overview Alphabetic Code Charts for different users and uses – ending with the guidance to ALSO print off the Spanish Alphabetic Code Chart.This provides a dramatic comparison and illustrates why teaching English reading and spelling is particularly challenging!
2. There are TWO places to ‘hear the sounds‘: an audio Alphabetic Code Chart enables the user to select any sound (and its accompanying word) in any order; videos on this page show me saying the sounds along with the various spelling alternatives.
3. For an introduction to my rationale for phonics provision and the Phonics International programme’s resources used flexibly for older learners (decoding for reading, encoding for spelling, building up spelling word banks, vocabulary enrichment and language comprehension), see the top embedded video on the homepage itself. I usually suggest that the person designated to lead the in-school training watches this video first, and becomes familiar with the PI PROGRAMME INDEX (where you will find the ‘log-in’ form and all the teaching and learning resources) BEFORE working with colleagues. This video is 1 hour 40 minutes long.
4. For a deeper understanding of the ‘Simple View of Reading‘ model (the two main processes of being a reader in the full sense) and the discredited ‘multi-cueing word-guessing strategies’, see the embedded video Effective Reading Instruction and Phonics Pre-Recorded Webinar which has full, printable course notes referenced throughout. This video is 1 hour 35 minutes long – but it features how to teach English as an Additional Language (EAL); my rationale for core resource design (for all three programmes: Phonics International, Floppy’s Phonics, No Nonsense Phonics); the phonics hand routines; the phonics teaching and learning cycle – and so much more. Again, I recommend that the designated lead person watches this and that perhaps one copy of the ‘course notes’ is printed for the staff room. Decisions can be made later as to whether individual staff members would benefit from their own copy.
[PLEASE NOTE: Inevitably you will find overlap between the two training videos recommended above.]
It will become clear that the No Nonsense Phonics programme is a development in pick-up-and-go ‘hard copy’ (to buy) resources of the core and essential resources of the Phonics International programme. No Nonsense Phonics, like Phonics International, can be used as both a mainstream and intervention programme. Indeed, many schools started to use either or both of these programmes for intervention and went on to adopt them across the schools for mainstream. Although they are both STAND ALONE bodies of work, they can also be used in a complementary or supplementary way – and the additional phonics ready-made resources such as ‘Frieze’, ‘Flash Cards’, ‘Sounds Mats’, ‘Mini Code Cards’ and the overview Alphabetic Code Charts can be used for both programmes as they use the same key-picture words throughout that are featured on many of the Alphabetic Code Charts. The series of ‘Phonics and vocabulary books’ (decodable reading books) can also be used with both programmes as a supplementary resource.
See our ONE PAGE CATALOGUE to investigate the ready-made hard copy and eBookshelf of our reading books.
And this page provides TRANSPARENT INFORMATION AND FREE TRAINING for No Nonsense Phonics.
The No Nonsense Phonics programme is designed for infants but it is suitable to be used throughout primary as required for intervention. I have an eBookshelf with all the No Nonsense Phonics resources and my reading books on to show people transparently what these consist of – and people can email me at debbie@phonicsinternational.com to arrange a Zoom meeting to take a look and discuss the contents and rationale.
There is a FREE RESOURCES page at the No Nonsense Phonics website including printable ‘Sounds Mats’ and ‘Miniature Frieze’ that may be useful in schools using Phonics International as their main programme.
PLEASE NOTE: For people who are particularly interested in the field of phonics and foundational literacy, Phonics International Ltd provides an internationally well-received self-study course, ‘Phonics Training Online‘. This is an inexpensive (£20 + VAT) ‘accredited’ course with a ‘Professional Development’ certificate of completion.