Does anyone have a list of the words used in this year's phonics test. I would be interested to see them, especially now Pjay has highlighted the absence of many P/G correspondences. Many thanks.

That's great, Derrie. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

Hi Geraldine,
I read that they were still looking for speakers but I'm not sure how up to date that was. There is always next year.

Apparently a third of the tickets have sold already so anyone wanting one needs to book quickly. There will be online streaming as well.

Hi all, I hope everyone is enjoying the half-term break, despite the soggy weather! I have just booked a ticket for this conference on evidence-based education. It's on Saturday 7th September at Dulwich College in London. The website for the event is: http://www.researched2013.co.uk The website says...

I get the impression that Nick Gibb and Michael Gove are of a very similar mind. Both are admires of the work of E.D Hirsch, as well as SP. I think Jenny Is probably correct re David Laws.

Hi Kestrel, apologies for the delay in replying. Thanks for all the helpful links. I have had a look at the websites you recommended and the content covered seems similar to what I have been teaching, albeit at a more advanced level. So that is reassuring:) I use the P.E.E (point, evidence, explanat...

Yes, I totally agree, Geraldine. However, what I have learned recently about secondary school practices suggests that these compound the problems created at primary level. These are analysed in depth in Andrew Old and Daisy Christodoulou's blogs. In addition to the lack of independent reading, I am ...

Old Andrew's response to Goldacre's report - thought-provoking stuff.

http://teachingbattleground.wordpress.c ... rt-part-1/

There is also a second part to his response.

I wanted to flag up this excellent website and blog. It is well worth reading all the articles in the blog. It has been very interesting to read about a small (but increasing) numbers of new 'free schools' or academies which have been influenced by the work of E.D Hirsch. The West London Free School...

I wanted to send a belated response to Kestral and Volunteer as I found your comments on the lack of non-fiction reading in schools (especially at secondary level) very pertinent. I have worked as a private tutor for the last 8 years. The core of my work is tutoring primary pupils in English and mat...

I have yet to read the content of the report but thought I would post the link for Ben Goldacre's report for the DFE.

http://www.badscience.net/2013/03/heres ... -minister/

Sorry, I'm unsure how to create a hyperlink on my iPad.

Anna

I am finding this a very interesting discussion. I wanted to flag up an excellent article by Minette Marin, about Gove's speech, in last Sundy's Sunday Times. Unfortunately, you need to be a subscriber to read it. Marin makes the point that certain facts are necessary ( but not sufficient) for highe...

Toots, we all agree with you that English is a more complex language that some other European languages which have mostly 1:1 phoneme to grapheme correspondence ( known as transparent languages). Synthetic and linguistic phonics programmes recognise this fact and explicitly teach children the altern...

How do look say books prepare children for real texts? They provide artificial cues which do not exist in real text. In schools which use SP programmes faithfully, including decodable texts, the majority of children have become free readers, who can confidently read chapter books, by the end of Year...

Toots wrote 'I have to wonder about these teachers who do not recognise what strategies their pupils are using and whether they are hearing children read or relying on parents to do that'. My perception is that since the advent of the Literacy Hour, schools do a lot more group reading & relying on p...