Whether or not you are using the Phonics International Programme, feel free to visit this informal 'Chat' forum!
Here you will find all sorts of interesting articles, links to research and developments - and various interesting topics! Do join in!
January 29th 2019: David and I are in the process of slashing all our prices for online resources. We have just sent out one of our eNewsletters to subscribers to inform them of this step - and already we have received very positive appreciative feedback - thank you to those of you who have contacted us already.
This is what we have sent out via email:
Dear Friends – warm good wishes to everyone,
Some of you who follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook will have noticed that we are in the process of reducing the price of our online materials.
We are writing this eNewsletter for two reasons linked to this price-reduction:
1) To inform you about our new approach of reducing the price of our online resources including the new prices for 2019
2) In following this price-reduction policy, we are appealing to those of you who have already bought our online resources and services at the higher price to understand and support us in our latest decision to price-drop.
We would like to think that our Phonics Training Online course, our Phonics International programme’s body of work, and our Series of 8 eBooks were already very generously priced. No-one has ever contacted us with a complaint about our resources or our pricing so we have interpreted this to mean that we have provided value for money.
In fact, many people have contacted us to say they are delighted with our resources and that they have put the knowledge and materials to very good effect in their teaching and tutoring. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us with their feedback – it is always appreciated.
The battle for evidence-informed reading instruction, however, continues across the world.
We frequently hear of inadequate or flawed teacher-training.
Debbie continues to observe poor phonics practice (often through no fault of the teachers) in her consultancy work and in watching phonics video footage.
There is little or no evidence of building on progress to date in the wider domain despite the advent of the internet.
Many teachers and parents of dyslexic children feel ill-equipped to address the continuing range of needs – of teacher-training and of teaching.
Debbie’s work can make a greater contribution to teacher-training and to teaching, tutoring and learning. The ethos of her guidance and resource design is to inform parents and carers of children as a minimum, and to aspire to work in partnership with ‘home’ as much as possible.
We work internationally and the internet allows people to access Debbie’s work at the touch of a button – especially if individuals can afford the training and the programmes.
Debbie has worked tirelessly to inform people in the reading debate for the past 20 years one way or another - and to create very, very practical resources with practical guidance. We now hope to increase the support we can provide by reducing our prices to encourage greater take-up of the training and resources – making our resources and guidance more affordable still.
To this end, here are our proposed reductions moving forwards:
The Phonics International programme provided online for all ages – was £99 for an annual school licence - NOW £20 annual all-user licence
The self-study Phonics Training Online course – was £147 – NOW £20
The Series of 8 eBooks – was a one-off price of £47 – NOW a one-off price of £10
Further Reductions to Follow:
We have decided to provide the two ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ nursery books as pdfs for a one-off price of £5
We will re-style the site for the ‘Teeny Reading Seeds’ package of nursery resources and provide it for a one-off price of £5
The additional two joined handwriting books with the alphabetic code graphemes in joined handwriting – was £11.95 – will shortly become £5
You are, of course, very welcome to tell us what you think of our plans and hope that you will all support these latest aims in providing really practical guidance and resources to raise standards of training, teaching and learning in all English-speaking contexts including when English is taught as an additional language.
Best wishes - and here's to providing the best in more affordable literacy resources and training, wherever in the world you may be,
Debbie and David
You can find an announcement about our re-pricing on the homepage here:
We are getting some lovely messages in response to our decision to slash the prices of our online resources. I have permission to share this message below - and really it is a 'celebration' because Sibel is someone who has been pioneering to introduce systematic synthetic phonics to her colleagues for many years, and she has personally been using/trialling this approach for those years to wonderful effect in Turkey.
Sibel (and her sister) have visited me to see SSP in action when I worked in infant teaching years ago, she has attended more than one of my two-day face-to-face training events for 'all comers' - on one occasion bringing a colleague, and she arranged for me to visit her Gelisim college and train her colleagues ten years ago.
You can see what a dedicated teacher Sibel is, and what an extraordinary pioneer:
My dear Debbie,
Thank you so much for reducing the prices for most of your online resources. We are thankful.
My daughter and her friend will be doing the online synthetic phonics training. They are so keen to learn more and more about the programme.
My daughter Melis and myself have been working together at GeliÅŸim college for nearly a year now. I am so proud of her as she loves teaching phonics to our students as well.
I thought you might like to know that another dedicated teacher is arising to follow mum's footsteps. Just like you and Abi!
I also have another wonderful news for you.
Rachel and I will be running our own Phonics in Turkey here at GeliÅŸim college. We have managed to convince our school's head to say yes. The centre will be in GeliÅŸim college.
We have been working very hard with Rachel to make it happen very soon.
Thank you for always helping and supporting me Debbie.
I will keep you updated with the latest news.
I have invited Rachel and Sibel to add their information via our international 'Tutors' page here:
It is very heartening to hear from people overseas for whom we have made our online resources more affordable. Thank you to everyone letting us know this step has made a difference. Don't forget I'm always available to answer any questions at debbie@phonicsinternational.com .
Hi and Happy New Year,
Greetings from Uganda. You can't imagine how we are committed to bringing Phonics International's influence here.
We are doing all we can to learn and put into practice whatever we learn.
And with your reduction in price initiative, I anticipate things will be better.
I am excited that I am soon paying for the online course and the 8 unit package.
Comments like this (below) make all our thousands of hours of work worthwhile.
Teachers cannot, and should not, be expected to create 'bodies of work' to support teaching and learning for reading and spelling instruction to the same level of content and guidance as people who dedicate their lives and considerable time and effort as specialists to provide the material:
Hello Teacher.. Debbie.. I live in Liechtenstein and teach English in the schools here. Thank you for this opportunity to learn more about phonics training. I have just paid the (great price) of twenty pounds and am "raring to go" thank you and regards, Mabel
Update: The Phonics International programme provided via mainly pdfs (printable and projectable) is now completely free.
Here is our 'shop' where ready-made resources can be purchased if preferred and where the 'No Nonsense Phonics' resources and 'Phonics Reading Books' can be purchased:
The complementary digital interactive Wand Phonics body of work is available (for 'blended' teaching and learning), published by Wand Education, as an expensive annual licence, see here:
