Lots of practitioners like to add a bit of Christmas sparkle to their lessons towards the end of the Autum term. In this article I share 4 simple Christmas reading activities, which can be adapted to use with any phonics programme. These could be incorporated into phonics lessons (depending on your learning objective and focus) or they could be used as short stand alone phonics activities on the days your timetable doesn’t allow for a full phonics lesson (eg because of Christmas plays/parties etc). Sign up to receive an editable Christmas bauble grapheme recognition activity (described below ..read more

This article explains the purpose of the home school reading diary, why writing ‘read well’ is not particularly helpful and what parents/carers could write instead to best support the development of their child’s reading skills. Sign up to receive a bank of useful, time saving comments which could be used in reading diaries and how these can be written using very few words ..read more

This article outlines 5 things you can do to increase the chances of your children doing well in the phonics screening check. Links to resources are provided, tips are given and you can sign up to receive an analysis of graphemes used in previous PSCs and those which have yet to be used ..read more

This article outlines the things it is useful for your child to know before they start school and what you can do to help them learn these things ..read more

This article explains what tricky words (also known as common exception words) are and identifies different types of mnemonics which can be used to teach children how to spell these words. Video links with practical examples are provided and you can sign up to receive two free tricky word spelling mnemonics you can use to help your child learn these spellings – one is suitable for Reception children and the other for Y1 ..read more

This half term's videos are all about having fun with phonics. As we are having to teach phonics daily, I think it's really important for us to make the sessions as fun and enjoyable as possible, whilst focusing clearly on our learning objectives. Each video will give you an idea you can use at school and some of these ideas can also be used by parents at home. You can view the videos on my Facebook Page ..read more

Makes interesting reading, particularly for those headteachers, teachers and parents who completed the survey earlier this summer ..read more

This article outlines 5 things you can do to maintain/improve your 4-7 year old child’s reading during the school holidays. Links to relevant research are provided, tips are given and you can sign up to receive 4 free phonetically decodable digital poems for your child to read to/with you during the school holidays when you may not have enough reading books from school for them to practise with ..read more

Do the children you work with find it difficult to recognise capital letters? Although not specificially mentioned in LaS, the phonics lesson would be a good time to teach capital letters for both reading and writing. I would suggest starting at Phase 3, but other practitioners may wish to start at Phase 2. This month's gold treasure chest resource is a set of capital letter grapheme cards which can be used in various ways during the phonics lesson to help children to be able to recognise capital letters, so they can blend words containing them, as well as helping them learn how to use them f ..read more

This video explains everything we currently know about the future of Letters and Sounds. I am awaiting answers from both the DfE and OFSTED to some questions seeking further clarification on a number of issues. I will post another video(s) when I hear back from them. Register for my newsletter (bottom right hand corner of the home page) to receive a notification when the next video is availble to watch. [mx_youtuber type="playlist" id="PL0xzHx_VLfMuqCEOnioHD9ALDc7jMcLOr"]  ..read more