Written by Debbie Hepplewhite (12th July 2024)
The Beginning
Coral is Spanish. She provided English phonics lessons for three to five year olds (75 children) in a Spanish bilingual school way back in 2005. At that time in Spain, this was phonics pioneering – even ‘bilingual’ provision was pioneering.
Coral was told that the children had better levels of English literacy than children in Primary 5 – but was also told by the headteacher that she was ‘teaching too much’ and the children were ‘learning too much’. A disciplinary procedure followed but Coral was a teacher, and nothing was going to stop her doing precisely that – teach!
The Development
The British Council and the Spanish Ministry of Education invited Coral to train all the teachers in the bilingual project which involved 43 schools throughout Spain.
Coral left the classroom and started providing training in ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ (SSP) nationally (in Spain) and internationally – for infant and primary schools.
During this period, Coral met the Jolly Phonics team (Jolly Learning Ltd) in England in 2006. Jolly Phonics was the programme she had been using with great success in the classroom – and which also proved to be informative and supportive for teachers in the UK.
I first met Coral in 2007 at the UK Reading Reform Foundation conference in London, England. At first, I thought she was literally some kind of ambassador with her professional persona, her enthusiasm for phonics in Spain and internationally, her clear expertise, and her passion for everyone to acquire the requisite knowledge and understanding for teaching English properly – the spoken language and the content and method of teaching reading and spelling with such a complex alphabetic code.
NOTE: The historic English language spelling system has the most complex alphabetic code in the world.
International team building
Coral was often the catalyst for many other teachers to join a wider ‘team’ of international phonics pioneers and trainers. This included the wonderful ladies Tracey Vessey (based in Spain) and Grace Vilar (based in Argentina, and providing significant training throughout South America). I am grateful that Coral introduced these wonderful ladies to me.
Tracey Vessey (Head of English) trialled the Phonics International programme in her school in Spain with great success – all the way up to and including Primary 6 (children aged 12). Grace went on to train not only in Jolly Phonics but also Phonics International, Floppy’s Phonics (Oxford University Press) and No Nonsense Phonics.
Coral realised that my overview English Alphabetic Code Charts (developed painstakingly for different users and purposes as I learnt more and more about the complex English alphabetic code) are incredibly informative and supportive for teachers for whom English is a new or additional language, and together we created a Spanish version to show the extraordinary differences between a ‘complex’ (opaque) code compared to a ‘simple’ (transparent) code.
Indeed, we both believe and promote that a tangible, overview Alphabetic Code is the foundation for literacy in English and profoundly important as ‘the starting point’ for professional understanding, the basis of phonics programmes, and for informing parents and carers.
We also both believe in, and heavily promote, the need and benefits of my ‘Two-pronged systematic AND incidental phonics teaching and learning approach’ which is supported by the ever-present, overview Alphabetic Code Charts. Too much emphasis on a ‘systematic’ and cumulative approach alone to teaching the English alphabetic code is in danger of diminishing the importance, and freedom, of teaching any letter/s-sound correspondences as and when required. After all, the range of different contexts with learners of all abilities and ages (first and second language learners), requires teachers to be knowledgeable and flexible in their approach to featuring and referring to the letter/s-sound correspondences of the English alphabetic code.
Outstanding commitment to raising global literacy in the English language
Coral has literally trained throughout the world including in Spain, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Switzerland, Mexico, England, Russia, Sudan, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Venezuela, Hong Kong, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, Libya, Chicago (USA), Maldives, Qatar and Ukraine. She has trained multiple times in some of these countries.
Coral always uses and promotes my Alphabetic Code Charts and mentions (and sometimes trains in) the Phonics International programme.
In addition, Coral always mentions the International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction, the UK Reading Reform Foundation and Phonics International. She supports several universities with their phonics curriculum for student-teachers.
Coral also trains in the Floppy’s Phonics programme (Oxford University Press) and the No Nonsense Phonics programme.
Coral is one of the authors for the Rocket Phonics decodable reading books and is accredited to train in the Rocket Phonics programme (author, Abigail Steel, publisher Hodder).
There has been quite a battle to promote the need for ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ in our schools whether in a first-language or additional-language context. Coral George has to be one of the most, if not the most, prolific and dedicated SSP trainer the world has had to date.
