Sounds-Write would like to pay tribute to all the schools, wherever they are, who managed to achieve over 90% of children passing the Phonics Screening Check threshold of 32/40. I am particularly proud of the following Sounds-Write schools that have sent their results to us to make public. Well done to: St George’s Church of… Continue reading Phonics Screening Check – results from seven Sounds-Write schools
Given that for many researchers working in the field of beginning reading and writing it is axiomatic that teachers should be adopting a synthetic phonics approach, the next question is: should that approach be graphemic, as Letters and Sounds is; or, should it be phonemic, as Sounds-Write, Sound Reading System, and That Reading Thing are?… Continue reading Linguistic phonics v traditional phonics
I’ve just been asked by someone in Australia why it is that the Sounds-Write programme aims to teach to young children multiple spellings of a sound at the same time – the concern being about overloading children’s memories. This is unquestionably the hardest aspect of learning how to read and spell for every single one… Continue reading One sound, different spellings: the Sounds-Write way
St George’s – from crisis to calm is the story of a school that twelve years ago was failing, and failing so badly it was in special measures. What that failure meant was that a good number children moving on to secondary school were unequipped to cope with the demands of the secondary curriculum. A huge… Continue reading St George’s Church of England Primary School: from crisis to calm
Why is it that some schools are able to successfully teach every child to read but the majority still don’t? This was the question posed by Dr Derrie Clark in an interview with Jan Hilary, who was until recently head of St George’s C. of E. Primary School in Wandsworth, when they met at this year’s Reading Reform Foundation conference. You… Continue reading Jan Hilary, head teacher extraordinaire!
Sounds-Write is very proud to be able to make public this testimonial from Mrs Janet Hilary, headteacher of St George’s Church of England Primary School in London. I recommend Sounds-Write to every teacher and school leader I meet. At St. George’s, where deprivation levels are extremely high, we achieve consistently outstanding results in all phases.… Continue reading Our wonderful testimonial from Jan Hilary of St George’s C of E Primary School
For some time now, there have been various accounts of the differences between linguistic phonics and synthetic phonics. Some of the principal differences you can find here on SusanGodland’s excellent website dyslexics.org.uk, but the differences also extend far beyond those adumbrated by Susan into the detail of how linguistic phonics should be taught. And, of… Continue reading Linguistic phonics: a practical example
I’m not long back from Perth in Australia, where I’ve been running two back-to-back courses with Mary Gladstone (see below), our resident Sounds-Write trainer based in Lismore, near Brisbane. And, apart from training trainees new to Sounds-Write, we were also training three new Sounds-Write trainers from DFS. We had a terrific time with our super-animated trainees.… Continue reading Sounds-Write trainings in Perth, Western Australia
I’ve been looking at an example of the phonics screening check from the DfE’s website. Here’s what it looks like in terms of structure: Section 1: the words and how they are structured in terms of consonants and vowels: tox CVC, bim CVC, vap CVC, ulf VCC, geck CVC, chom CVC , tord CVC, thazz CVC), blan… Continue reading The screening check, Sounds-Write style
At the weekend I was asked to have a look at a child with literacy difficulties. One of the problems she had was that she hadn’t been taught to say sounds precisely. Sounds-Write sets great store in emphasising to teachers the importance of saying sounds properly without adding an /uh / sound after every consonant.… Continue reading The children at St Thomas Aquinas sound all right!