In line with Government guidelines, our books have been validated for use with the Sounds-Write® programme and are awaiting further validation alongside other programmes. Read more about how to use our books with any Phonics programme.
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This summer – an opportunity for catch up reading
Here we are in the last term of school and soon the summer will be upon us. It is really important that during this summer, the ‘summer slump’ of learning loss will not add to the learning loss that has […]
Teaching phonics in a multisensory way
Multisensory learning is when a child uses a number of senses to experience a learning activity. This could be seeing, hearing and touching or manipulating letters. We experience the world with our senses and these allow us to absorb and […]
Homophones – what to do about them?
What are homophones? Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. The word ‘homophone’ has a Greek origin. ‘Homo’ meaning ‘same’ and ‘phone’ meaning ‘sound’. So, the word ‘homophone’ means a same-sounding words that have different meanings. […]
How to organise your decodable books
Many teachers are now using decodable books to help their beginner readers practice the phonics taught in the classroom lessons. This is because it is now accepted that decodable texts, which are controlled texts, help children develop decoding, and decoding […]
What’s so great about dictation?
The verb ‘to dictate’ is not one that teachers warm to. This is because we love to foster creativity in our children and to get them to write their own ideas. BUT when teaching children how to read and spell […]
What is reading? – what I should have learned in teacher training
When I trained to be a teacher in one of the best universities in London, I learned a great deal about the wonderful world of books, how to select quality picture books and spot racially biased books, and even how […]
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – scaffolding the teaching of multisyllabic words
Scaffolding the teaching of multisyllabic words – simple to complex Many teachers are focused on teaching children how to sound out graphemes (spellings) and to blend sounds together into words. They will even be teaching children how to manipulate phonemes […]
What is the point of pointing?
Often when I read with a pupil, I need to remind her/him (and myself) to point to the words. As fluent readers we don’t point to words on the page, but sometimes if we come across a difficult or new […]
What’s in your book bag?
Beginner readers need a great deal of practice. Where possible, sending home decodable books is an important opportunity for reading practice. It is difficult for the teacher or teaching assistant to hear every child read every day or even every […]
How to write a word chain
Word chains are really important for all children learning to read, especially struggling readers. Some programmes call this activity ‘Sound swap’ (Sounds-Write) or ‘Switch it’ (Reading Simplified). Why word chains are a useful teaching tool Word chains offer children practice […]
Why we should be teaching phonemic awareness to address learning loss and equity
I recently listened to a webinar by Dr Susan Brady and there some really important points I wanted to summarise for busy teachers. Focus what is supported by evidence to accelerate learning We are now racing against time to reverse […]
When should children stop using decodable texts?
Decodable books have a very specific and limited purpose in the process of learning to read. They provide reading practice as children learn to use the sound/letter correspondences they have been taught, and the strategy of blending sounds throughout the […]