On a number of different occasions (here, here, with kind permission from Debbie Hepplewhite, and here) I’ve blogged about the introduction of nonsense words into the government’s ‘Phonics screening check’ and, I hope, have answered some of the objections made by (mostly) the whole language lobby. Well, the other day I noticed that the eagle-eyed… Continue reading Spelfabet’s sound sense on nonsense!
Department for Education Monitoring of 959T Systematic Synthetic Phonics Training Report Date of Visit: 28th & 30th January 2013 Venue Visited: Learning Centre, Park Road, Hindley, Wigan, WN2 3RY Training Provider: Sounds-Write Ltd. Lead contact: Garry Phillipson garry@sounds-write.co.uk Trainers: John Walker, Lala Worrall Course: SWC5 Course Duration: 09.00-16.00 (for 5 sequential days)* No of attendees:… Continue reading Ofsted monitoring report on Sounds-Write training – an inspector calls
The Magic Beltseries is the latest offering from the Phonicbooks stable. It is promoted as being a ‘catch-up’ series of twelve books for 8-14-year-olds ‘who would benefit from starting a phonics course from the beginning’. It covers the structures at word level from CVC, through CVCC and CCVC to CCVCC, as well as the consonant… Continue reading The Magic Belt series from Phonicbooks
There was a very interesting (and very muddled) piece in the Times yesterday on the subject of the sounds of the English language and its spelling conventions. The story begins with former investment banker Jaber Jabbour sitting on an aeroplane reading the safety instructions and wondering why two languages, in this case Portuguese and English,… Continue reading Jaber whacky!
As a boy, I often enjoyed reading G.K.Chesterton’s Father Brown’s stories. So, when I noticed there was a programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday entitled ‘Scoring Father Brown’, I decided to tune in to listen to what it was all about. According to the trail on the Radio 4 website, the programme was about ‘a unique exploration… Continue reading Music, Father Brown and phonics teaching
Thanks to L W-B
If you happened to have bought the Sun newspaper last Sunday, you will doubtless have read Nick Gibb’s piece (pp14 – 15) ‘The teachers aren’t letting down kids… it’s [the] methods of teachers’. In the article, Gibb claims that one in ten boys leave ‘primary school with the reading age of a seven-year-old or worse’.… Continue reading Brazil nuts about education!
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!
You know what they say? There are lies, damn lies and press reports about the government’s phonics screening check – especially in the Independent. I think Leveson should be instructed to look into journalistic standards at the Independent.The latest, penned pseudonymously by ‘Jennifer Jackson’, has got to be one of the most rebarbative fabrications I have… Continue reading Independent? Only from the truth when it comes to phonics
Once again Mr Verb reminds me that the American Dialect Society, chaired by Ben Zimmer, will soon be plumping for its ‘Word of the Year 2012’. Last year it turned out to be ‘occupy’, a distinctly disappointing decision in my opinion, given the rich choice on offer. I preferred ‘bazinga’, from the ‘Big Bang Theory’.… Continue reading WOTY – Oxford Dictionary style
