Anne Glennie co-hosted and we had over 50 people sign up for the series of events. The cost was £25 + VAT for the training plus the annual licence for the Phonics International programme was included - thus the training cost only £5 in effect.
A few people missed one of the sessions so Anne and I provided a 'mop up' session to revise or fill in any of the content required.
I would say Anne's idea and the four sessions in total were really successful - I do hope so.
A few days after the 'mop up' (gratis) session, I received this very exciting message from one of the participants - how heartwarming is this....
Dear Debbie
Thank you for running the mop up session for Phonics International training this week. I had been really disappointed to miss the week before and was relieved I could catch up. It was really helpful to go back over the teaching from the other sessions too. I appreciated the opportunity to revise and re-learn a few things.
I had a meeting with my head teacher about next term and the end result was that I will now be teaching phonics using Phonics International and I will also be setting the homework for Spelling. So no more active learning routines in this classroom!
Aside from the course being most useful in providing a rigorous well-structured practice for teaching phonics, I was really encouraged by so many of the things that you said. I had come to similar conclusions about spelling, reading and writing and how it is taught. It felt lonely at times and I was wondering how to best articulate my frustration with continued practice that clearly doesn’t work. You have given me a boost of support to move forward with a plan that I believe will make a difference.
Progress!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)