3rd Jan 2017: Launch of 'Phonics Intervention' website

This is the forum for participants of the 'PHONICS TRAINING ONLINE' course written by Debbie Hepplewhite. Participants are welcome to add their own comments. Debbie will contribute any relevant up-to-date findings, issues and developments. To find out about the course, go to: www.phonicstrainingonline.com .
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3rd Jan 2017: Launch of 'Phonics Intervention' website

Post by debbie »

Warm greetings for the New Year. I can hardly believe it is 2017!

We have just launched a new website:

https://phonicsintervention.org

To announce this launch, we have sent out an eNewsletter to explain the reasons for developing the site. See the next message for the contents of the eNewsletter!
Debbie Hepplewhite
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Post by debbie »

These reasons are contributory to why we have created a new website focused on 'intervention' which we described to our eNewsletter subscribers thus:
Here at Phonics International, we have been very busy over the festive period designing a new website:

www.phonicsintervention.org

I am particularly concerned about the enormous cost of some intervention programmes and training courses.

A teacher phoned me up last year enquiring about the possible use of Phonics International for intervention purposes in a mainstream secondary school. The phonics and spelling programme they had been using to date charged £12,000 for their training and materials to use with a maximum of 100 pupils. I was utterly shocked.

This is by no means the first call I’ve had with concern about intervention training and materials. Some organisations homing in on the ‘dyslexia’ label charge a great deal for their individual training but provide no actual materials of any consequence to support trainees with teaching and learning. The tutors are expected to make these themselves, along with each tutee, to ‘individualise’ the programme of study. What nonsense this is.

In addition, some intervention organisations then charge a school, or parents, an inordinate ‘hourly’ rate for the services of the tutor, but then the tutor gets a very small proportion of this amount. This is wrong on two counts – that the charge is so high in the first place, and that the tutor gets very little for his or her services.

It’s worse than that, though, isn’t it. Why are so many children requiring the services of a tutor for foundational literacy (reading and spelling) in the first place? And why are individual parents even having to pay when the service is through the auspices of a school?

I do think that parents and carers should be able to find the services of a tutor if they wish – and I have been approached many times by people who are seeking a tutor specifically to teach ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ but I have been unable to recommend a tutor in specific areas in most cases.

Recently, I was approached by a parent asking if I knew of any tutors who would be willing to ‘skype’ overseas to support children attending schools operating in new languages. What a brilliant idea and there is such a need for this.

So, I suggested to David that we create a site for ‘intervention’ – that also included the message that ‘prevention’ is the first step – and where we would be prepared to list the names of tutors who have completed my Phonics Training Online course – who would therefore also be ready-equipped with the resources of the entire Phonics International programme and the Early Years Starter Package (included in the course materials)!

Whilst we cannot vouch for these tutors (which we make clear on the site), we can however confirm that they have completed my very comprehensive, practical course and therefore they are supported by comprehensive fit-for-purpose resources.

In addition, we have been working very hard with great people from Raintree Publishing to produce some of my work in a very streamlined hard copy version – in nine Pupil Books and nine parallel Teaching Books – No Nonsense Phonics Skills.

I am so excited about this new, streamlined hard copy programme which is ideal for ‘targeted support’ as well as mainstream provision. As always, I am passionate that people should have a clear understanding of what the programme entails and so the new site provides plenty of information in the form of video footage, a PowerPoint presentation for quick review, and an audio-video version of the PowerPoint with my ‘voice over’ which in effect is a training resource.

As always, I provide numerous free resources via the site which will support professional development, teaching and learning.

David has also linked to a variety of my articles – some ideal for parents, some more academic and geared towards teachers.

We’ll also set up a specific message forum – coming soon!

Do have a look here: www.phonicsintervention.org .

All the best,

Debbie
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Post by debbie »

More developments during the first day of our launch - David has set me up a new blog for the Phonics Intervention site and I link to this thread to describe 'the catalyst' for my first blog post:

https://phonicsintervention.org/2017/01 ... tion-site/

As you can see from the blog post, we've already had some very kind and encouraging responses!

People recognise the need for a tutoring service focused on high-quality systematic synthetic phonics provision that includes language comprehension too!
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Post by debbie »

Here is a very useful page to get a clear idea of the rationale, design and recommended use of my No Nonsense Phonics Skills programme. It includes video footage including some classroom practice, testimonial, critique, PowerPoint for quick review, audio-video PowerPoint for information and training purposes:

https://phonicsintervention.org/no-nons ... cs-skills/
Debbie Hepplewhite
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