Elizabeth Nonweiler has stepped down from the Welsh Government’s Expert Literacy Panel, raising serious concerns about the direction of national literacy policy. In a public letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Education, she warns that the newly announced £8.2 million...
Whether you are the Department for Education, a school or a parent you may find your answer here. As an Educational Psychologist I’ve spent much of my career fascinated by dyslexia and the struggles some children face when learning to read. I’d like to tell you...
Here is a letter from the RRF to Jamie Oliver, in response to his important campaign advocating for improved education and support for those with dyslexia. The Reading Reform Foundation Dear Jamie Oliver, Thank you for advocating for children who have had difficulty...
Following poor results for children’s reading in Wales, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle, commented that it is a clear expectation for all schools in Wales to use ‘synthetic’ phonics, and a Welsh Government spokesperson said that the importance of...
In November 2023, the Princess of Wales delivered a speech on the results of research on early childhood, organised by her Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood. She said, “Nurturing skills that enable us to know ourselves, manage our emotions, focus our...
The Snow Report to parents by Pamela Snow is about how children are taught to read. It is directed at Australian parents, but the situation is similar in most English speaking countries, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. England is...
In Scotland, a young child attended an accredited Dyslexia Friendly School (DFS) and immediately started struggling to learn how to read. The child was attentive, well behaved, and hardworking but made little progress in learning to read. After 3...
There are hundreds of programmes available for teaching phonics. If you are responsible for choosing one, take time to look carefully at the content, reputation and cost of several programmes before making a decision. First, of course, you should choose a programme...
Decodable reading books are part of our toolkit when supporting our children to become proficient readers.Recently, there has been extensive funding available to enable schools to implement them in schools, as partof their approach to systematic synthetic phonics....
The only phonological skill required for children taught to read with Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) is hearing the word after the letter sounds have been spoken, such as /c-a-t/ cat, /sh-ee-p/ sheep . Skilled readers do this whenever they come...