Fluent readers may find it difficult to understand why beginner readers find some words difficult to decode. Take the word ‘was’.  It is a ‘tricky word’.  What is so tricky about it?

The radio programme ‘The Written World’ was broadcast on Radio 4 last week.  I have retrieved a few fascinating nuggets of information about our written script.  These might be useful to enthuse pupils about the history of writing (or alternatively use in a pub quiz one rainy day).

Pip the Ant, from Dandelion Books, demonstrates the sounds of the alphabet. An interactive animated video clip recommended for beginner readers. Dandelion books are publised by phonicbooks. www.phonicbooks.co.uk

More information has been published by the DfE about the Year 1 phonics screening check. Recently published details will answer a number of questions teachers will be asking.

What is the match-funding phonics catalogue?
The match-funding phonics catalogue is an online and paper catalogue through which schools in England will be able to purchase phonics products and services for KS1 pupils, which the DfE will match-fund.
ESPO (Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation) has been appointed to manage the catalogue and the match-funding.

Synthetic Phonics programmes now talk of ‘adjacent consonants’. What are adjacent consonants? Why is it that the letters ‘bl’ in the word ‘black’ are adjacent consonants while ‘ck’ are not?

Non-words are nonsense words made up of the spellings (graphemes) a child has already been taught by Year 1. Words like ‘bip’, ‘steg’ or ‘shromp’. To find out why non-words should be in the Y1 Phonics screening check

Phonicbooks have just made a free video clip of Pip, the ant, demonstrating the sounds of the alphabet. We thought it would be a good idea to use the characters in Dandelion Books to enthuse our young readers.

This is free for teachers and parents; a great way to practise precise pronunciation or ‘pure sounds’ of the alphabet. Recommended for young, beginner readers. It can found on YouTtube. Go to You Tube and search ‘Pip Phonics’.

Recent articles in the media about the approach to teaching reading suggest that educators are divided into two camps: the ‘real book’ camp and the synthetic phonics camp.

The real book camp is supported by a number of prominent authors, such as Michael Rosen. They have voiced their concern that using decodable reading books limits children’s vocabulary and denies them the joy of reading and the variety and richness of children’s picture books: decodable books switch children off from reading. The impression is formed that teachers use either real books or decodable books.

Susan Godsland, from the Reading Reform Foundation, debunks this premise and explains why and how the two go hand in hand.

Match-funding: How to use this opportunity

The DfE has committed to match-fund £3,000 for every £3,000 spent on Synthetic Phonics training and resources in KS1 in state schools in England. This offer will be available until March 2013.

Head teachers and Literacy Coordinators will be thinking about how best to make use of this one-time opportunity.