The infamous illustration that was censored by a school! Follow the discussion at http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1432936-why-wont-school-let-pupils-see-these-pages-of-Oxford-Reading-Tree-book?pg=1

In a piece supoosedly arguing ‘against a phonics versus books stand-off’, yesterday’s Guardian gave space again for Phoebe Doyle, described on their pages as a former primary teacher who now writes on education, parenting and health issues’, to bellyache about how phonics is being used in school. She had previously written ‘Boy-friendly practice is just… Continue reading Hey Phoebe, leave those phonics teachers alone!

In the next two hundred HFWs in Letters and Sounds, I’ve calculated that a further sixty-two are again easily decodable. This makes a total of ninety-four out of the three hundred listed which are commonly occurring words but which are easily decodable and should never be taught as ‘sight words’. At Sounds-Write, our approach has… Continue reading More on high-frequency words

With thanks to LW-B

In memory of Christopher Eric Hitchens, 1949-2011, writer and permanent oppositionist.

Time for some R&R

The widely heralded increase in the schools budget is, it turns out, not what it at first seemed. The Financial Times this weekend (30th/31st October) spelt out the reality behind the rise.The resource budget, which is used to fund day-to-day running costs will, it appears, rise by 0.4 %. However, the increase in the numbers… Continue reading The truth behind the ‘rise’ in the education budget

Why does what Gabriella (see previous posting) says ring true? For two reasons. First, my own niece, an Italian from a town close to Bologna and who attends a liceo (an Italian high school)there, came to live in this country for two terms – her mother thought it would polish up her spoken English. She… Continue reading The Reader Gets Angry II

In case you missed the BBC2 Newsnight programme last night (Friday 11th December), the guests were Anthony Horowitz, Michael Bywater, David Schneider and Bidisha (Mukherjee). Newly released films under discussion were Where the Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr Fox, and the adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel Nation at the National. There were reviews… Continue reading Newsnight review on BBC2: lets hear it for the kidults!