It was fantastic to welcome Gertrude Niles to her second RRF conference and to meet the phonics leaders from Carricou, Petite Martinique and Grenada.
Their descriptions of their learning-curve in the synthetic phonics teaching principles and the results of the teaching with their pupils were both humorous and heartwarming - bringing tears to my eyes and the biggest glow in my heart.
I am so proud of all the people involved in this joint project which has been a truly international effort.
Our friends overseas are learning that their schools are often ahead of schools in the UK. Whilst many schools in England have come aboard with the synthetic phonics teaching principles, not all have - and not all SP schools give enough time or apply enough effort to their teaching.
I do urge teachers in every school teaching the English language to instigate the synthetic phonics teaching principles. Not only is synthetic phonics teaching signficantly more effective than the mixed methods 'multi-cueing' reading strategies, it is also immensely satisfying to watch students learn so well on a daily basis.
Thank you so much to our Caribbean friends for all their teaching efforts, and all their considerable fund-raising efforts to fly a long way across the ocean to contribute to our very international conference.
We had visitors from many countries across the world and I hope to write more about this later.
Quite a few people were taking photos on the day, so please do send me electronic copies so that I can add them to our PI website. Thank you.
