Debbie: Every half term (there are three ‘terms’ in England’s academic year), literacy advisor Carl Pattison endeavours to hold an online meeting with the Reading Leaders from schools using the No Nonsense Phonics (NNP) programme. Most of these schools are
***January 2025 – The No Nonsense Phonics Pupil Books trialled for ‘intervention’ in a primary school in Wales, now being rolled out for ‘mainstream’ because of its success!
We are grateful to have received this testimonial below provided by the Headteacher of a primary school in Wales, UK – January 2025: ‘After deciding to focus on improving phonics and reading to ensure that all children are able to
***Does CVC refer to letters or sounds? Post by Debbie Hepplewhite written at first as a guest post for Dr. Kathryn Garforth of Garforth Education
The 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 alphabetic code’
***December 2024 – Some of Debbie’s articles and podcast guest appearances…
This thread (link below) via the FORUM at the International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction includes various articles I have written, and videos where I have been invited as a guest speaker, over the years. A few of the links
***December 2024 – Recording of my talk for student-teachers at Edge Hill University with the theme of ‘Evaluating and Comparing the DfE-validated Phonics Programmes’ in which I am highly critical of the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ programme and pedagogy.
UPDATE: January 2025 – the video of the Edge Hill University talk is no longer in the public domain at the request of the university. December 2024 – See the recording of a talk I provided for student-teachers at Edge Hill
***2024 – Update of Y1 Phonics Screening Check results in some top-performing Flying High Trust schools using the ‘No Nonsense Phonics’ programme…
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
***Rob Randel provides the Welsh content for an English-Welsh Alphabetic Code Chart – and describes his findings using the No Nonsense Phonics Pupil Books and the complementary Phonics Reading Books
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
***In a nutshell, a response to schools contemplating a change to Phonics International (and/or No Nonsense Phonics) and seeking training…
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
***Sept 2024 – Partial critique of the systematic synthetic phonics programme, ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ – it amounts to ‘impoverished’ phonics provision…
Update: December 2024 – See the recording of a talk I provided for student-teachers at Edge Hill University for their focus phonics week which included evaluating and comparing phonics programmes. In my talk, I describe why I have found it
***England: Sept 2024 – Critique of the Department for Education’s ENGLISH HUBS initiative – lacking in transparency and accountability, inwards-looking and unambitious – could do differently and better!
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
***Coral George – Outstanding Phonics Ambassador Internationally for 20 Years!
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
***Guest post: Implementing ‘No Nonsense Phonics’ across multiple schools – by Carl Pattison
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
***Lovely feedback from a No Nonsense Phonics Y1 teacher and a training video for ‘Organisation, Management and Practical Suggestions’
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
***Dr Gillian Evans writes, ‘ “All Learners in Scotland Matter”, No They Don’t’ – and Gillian has the knowledge and experience to illustrate this parlous state of affairs…
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
***Superb feedback from Australia – using ‘No Nonsense Phonics’ in schools
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
***Home-schooling in China with Phonics International resources – guest post by Jingying
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
***A trio of examples of Phonics International used in completely different settings in the ‘early days’ of the Phonics International programme (which was first published in 2007)
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
***The issue of ‘matched texts’ is clearly worrying teachers – what are the practicalities?
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
***Myths and misunderstandings about the claimed superiority of the ‘Speech to Print’ phonics approach for teaching reading, compared to programmes said to be based on ‘Print to Speech’ – and the THIRD approach with equal attention to BOTH directions where speech to print is taught for spelling, and print to speech is taught for reading
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
***England: Reading Leaders from the ‘Flying High Trust’ share their ‘SURPRISES’ from the implementation of ‘No Nonsense Phonics’ in their infant, junior and primary schools – guest post by Carl Pattison
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
***PART TWO: ‘The harmful legacy of multi-cueing and its evolution into look-alike reading – a secondary school perspective’ guest post 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 Please
***PART ONE – Guest post: Introducing Jacqui Moller-Butcher and her extraordinarily important findings (and suggestions) regarding ‘look-alike reading’ in KS 3 (secondary sector)
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
***Contact details of some people and schools using – Phonics International, No Nonsense Phonics or Oxford Reading Tree Floppy’s Phonics (Oxford University Press) or a combination in some cases!
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’
***England: The impact of the Phonics International programme – guest post by Headteacher, Rachel Hornsey
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
***England: I’m HORRIFIED that teachers of 4 and 5 year olds are teaching a form of print with a ‘lead-in’ join – please stick to simple print!
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
***England: Lord Scudamore Academy is a school where the Oxford Reading Tree Floppy’s Phonics programme (Oxford University Press) has been used successfully and enjoyably for over a decade…
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
***Where is the planning (for Phonics International and No Nonsense Phonics)?
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
***About Wand Phonics – an interactive digital platform that can complement the FREE Phonics International programme and/or the hard copy No Nonsense Phonics programme (England: Wand Phonics is validated by the Department for Education when used along with NNP and/or PI)
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
***Wales: Lumen attends a Welsh-medium schools and, meanwhile, she is learning to read and spell in English at home with the No Nonsense Phonics (Skills) Pupil Books
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.
***Does CVC refer to letters or sounds? Post by Debbie Hepplewhite written at first as a guest post for Dr. Kathryn Garforth of Garforth Education (Canada)
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
