Aged 75, after 25 years of researching and writing books, articles and blogs about English spelling, I  decided to write one more book about it, to explain its regularities and irregularities, their origins and the learning difficulties they cause, and to post each chapter on here as I finish them. I have now finished them and they are available as a Kindle book as well as here:      1.Introduction  2.How English is spelt 3.Learning to read English  4. Learning to write  5. Teaching difficulties and costs  6. How parents and innate abilities affect ..read more

This is a work in progress. Aged 75, after 25 years of researching and writing books, articles and blogs about English spelling, I have decided to have another go at explaining the system, its learning difficulties and their origins, and to upload each chapter here as I finish it. I want the information in them to be available, even if I don't complete the book or get it published.       So far (April 2020) they are: 1.Introduction  2.How English is spelt 3.Learning to read English  4. Learning to write  5. Teaching difficulties and costs  6. How parents and innate abilities affect progress 7 ..read more

 Since 2007 primary teachers in England have been obliged to use phonics for teaching young children to read and write. They risk failing their Ofsted inspections if they don’t use one of the government-approved synthetic phonics courses.      Synthetic phonics was made mandatory in the hope of improving standards and reducing persistent educational underachievement among pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or with learning disabilities. It is however becoming clear that this has failed to make much of a difference. Roughly 1 in 6 pupils, or around 18 %, continue to leave primary school ..read more