Author: Debbie Hepplewhite

In previous posts, Literacy Advisor Carl Pattison has described the benefits and results of the rich-content, paper-based approach of the No Nonsense Phonics programme implemented in multiple schools of the Flying High Trust, with Reading Leaders describing their ‘Surprises‘ from

Debbie Hepplewhite: November 2024 – At long last, we have uploaded a ‘combined’ English-Welsh Alphabetic Code Chart. This has been an idea for some considerable time, and I’m extremely grateful to Rob Randel who has provided the Welsh content for

5th November 2024: I’ve written untold numbers of emails, over many years, to teaching professionals who approach me for information and training for my various phonics programmes. Having asked for their school context and perceived training requirements, I reply accordingly

23rd September 2024 – post by Debbie Hepplewhite Well, to be honest, I’m in somewhat of a dilemma. As author of the (free) Phonics International programme and the hard copy (to buy) No Nonsense Phonics programme (both published by Phonics

20 September 2024 – this post is written by Debbie Hepplewhite… First of all, what IS the ‘English Hubs’ initiative of the Department for Education (DfE, 2018) in England? This is the description on the Government site: ——————————————- ‘English Hubs

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

Carl Pattison is an Independent Literacy Advisor. At the time of writing this guest post, Carl has various roles including Priority Literacy Lead for a Key Stage 2/3 literacy project across Derby and Nottingham Cities aimed at raising standards in

Thank you so much to Year One teacher and Phonics lead, Aimee Flook, who organised some live Zoom training events for a school ‘refresher’ and for some new colleagues at the school. I received permission to share this video in

Debbie: The field of ‘Education’ is devolved in the United Kingdom. This has led to a different rationale, and different content, for ‘official’ guidance for teacher training, and foundational literacy instruction for learners, in England compared to Scotland, Wales and

We may have news of a very exciting development for the hard-copy ‘No Nonsense Phonics‘ programme which already has several schools using it successfully in Australia. The reputation of ‘No Nonsense Phonics‘ is growing across school communities because of its

Debbie: Jingying contacted me some time ago from China – then recently she emailed me with updates about her son’s progress and I asked her if she would like to share her findings via my literacy blog. Sharing Jingying’s experience

Phonics International as an Intervention in Secondary Education – Click HERE in a Primary School in Western Australia – Click HERE and in a Primary School in England – Click HERE

IMPORTANT UPDATE JAN 2022: Abigail Steel and I have now recorded a webinar discussing the issues around ‘matched reading books’ – this refers to the scenario in England and it includes references to research: Micromanaging Matched Reading Books Webinar Debbie: All

Debbie: I don’t doubt that writing my observations and thoughts about this topic is stepping into a minefield, but I feel compelled to write something. I’ve avoided fully approaching this topic in the public domain for many years. With the

Carl Pattison is the Early Reading Lead advisor for the Flying High Trust (an Academy Trust of multiple schools in Nottinghamshire). Carl summarised the findings of the Reading Leaders (Summer 2023): Summary: After Reading Leaders reflected on the ‘surprises‘ following

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 Please

Debbie: 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. At

Debbie: I’m frequently asked if I can provide the name and contact details of people in schools that are using one (or more) of my systematic synthetic phonics programmes. It may seem strange to refer to using ‘one or more’

The impact of the Phonics International programme by Rachel Hornsey – June 2021: Our school vision, which is a thread running throughout our curriculum, is: “We work to provide our children with strong foundations on which to build their lives

Debbie: 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

Debbie: It’s truly heartwarming to build relationships with people working with one’s phonics resources and suggestions who love using them, where children love them and succeed with them, and the children’s parents and carers are appreciative – and everyone ‘says

Debbie: Occasionally teachers write to me to ask, ‘Where is the planning?‘ for the Phonics International programme and No Nonsense Phonics (Skills). This has happened a number of times so rather than keep repeating the answer to individual teachers, I thought it

IMPORTANT UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2024: I have extremely disappointing news about Wand Phonics. The company that approached us in 2017 to create a body of phonics work for them, Wand Education, is no longer responding to us. We have also heard

Many thanks to Rob Randel for this guest-post: In this series of short videos, you can see my daughter, Lumen (age five at the time) using No Nonsense Phonics resources at home to learn how to read and spell in English.

There is a need to distinguish between consonant letters and vowel letters through teaching about ‘the alphabet’ compared to consonant sounds and vowel sounds through teaching about the ‘alphabetic code’. Teachers need to teach about both ‘the alphabet’ and ‘the

By Debbie Hepplewhite: Teaching the English alphabetic code (the letter/s-sound correspondences) and the requisite three core phonics skills and their sub-skills for reading and spelling is based on a routine ‘phonics teaching and learning cycle‘ when it is taught SYSTEMATICALLY – whether for mainstream

Debbie: It is always very heartwarming to receive feedback about our programmes and resources. We hear from people all over the world using our resources ranging from teachers, to tutors, to parents, to intervention specialists – even occasional librarians and

Thank you to John Dabell for these reviews in Teach Primary and Teach Secondary. Please note that references to the cost of the Phonics International programme’s licence are no longer relevant as the programme’s online resources are now completely free

Debbie: I was so delighted to read about this achievement via Emma Rutherford’s Facebook page. Hearty congratulations to Emma, Bree and Rebecca for all the pioneering and hard work of these ladies – and for the hard work of their

Thank you to Georgina for this testimonial: “After taking on the leadership of phonics, I wanted to brush up on my subject knowledge so that I could support my team and ensure the children were receiving high quality phonics instructions.