On a phonics training I ran on Tuesday for graduate teachers on the GTP course, I had a most interesting conversation with one of the trainees. The trainee has been asked to teach some phonics lessons in a Buckinghamshire primary school and showed me a list of spellings that were to be sent home each week.… Continue reading Phonically challenged!
While arguments rage about state versus private versus free schools, a quiet flanking movement is taking place: the growth of the virtual school or education online. As a tutor for the Open University for sixteen years, as well as being an online student with the OU myself, I’m a big fan of online study. Every… Continue reading Virtual school?
As minister of state for schools, Nick Gibb knew very well the need for ringing the changes in education. He understood well that a bull in a china shop approach would be counterproductive in assisting Michael Gove in bringing about those much needed changes. As a result, he tended to be pretty even-handed, dispensing adverse criticism of… Continue reading Goodbye Mr Gibb
I thought Sounds-Write practitioners and other readers of the blog would like to catch sight of a couple of testimonials we received at the end of last term. The first, from Pinchmill Lower School in Felmersham, Bedfordford, comes from the head teacher, Vanessa Coleman. Vanessa writes: Dear John, I thought I would write to you… Continue reading Plaudits for Sounds-Write
The new school year starts with me looking forward to the publication on September 6th of David Crystal’s new book on spelling. As readers of this blog well know, I am a huge fan of Crystal’s work. Crystal’s knowledge of the English language is encyclopaedic and he is one of the few writers on the… Continue reading Spelling crystallised
Seen outside a primary school in Bedford the other day and posted to me by a happy parent!
Until this morning, I’ve only received one result of the phonics screening test from a school in Kent and that doesn’t give me all the facts and figures, but I’ve been thinking more about this test. Firstly, I was never really convinced that giving this kind of test at the end of Year 1 was… Continue reading Phonics food for thought
Aren’t you just sick of listening to ministers like Leighton Andrews telling us all how rosy everything in the garden is going to be with a bit of ‘upskilling’? Apparently, Welsh pupils are going to be the latest beneficiaries of the ‘excellent teaching of literacy’ that Mr Andrews is going to bring in. There’s that… Continue reading 2015? It’s still too late, Leighton!
What is it with these heads that can’t stop crossing themselves and averring that they are not going to tell six-year-olds they are failures? As if any teacher in their right mind would declare a child a failure if they didn’t pass a test, any test. If anyone is declared a failure, it ought to… Continue reading Another head teacher takes the pledge
I had to smile the other day. I was listening to programme on Radio 4 reporting on the Home Affairs Committee, which happened to be hearing evidence about an inquiry into drugs by the police, when who should pop up but Russell Brand? Regardless of the content of what Mr Brand had to say, and… Continue reading Brand? but by no means bland!