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Elizabeth is an experienced teacher and an expert in synthetic phonics teaching methods.

She runs training courses in the UK and abroad, advises teachers and has lead a project to introduce synthetic phonics to islands in the Caribbean. To find out more, click here:

Read testimonials from a range of schools and experts: Sue Lloyd, Ruth Miskin, Debbie Hepplewhite, Marlynne Grant, Susan Godsland ...

Are you looking for up-to-date training in synthetic phonics?

This is the method now officially advocated by the DCSF for the initial teaching of reading, and defined in the document, 'Criteria for assuring high quality phonic work'. Elizabeth of ‘Teach to Read’ provides training for teaching according to these criteria.

But is synthetic phonics really the most effective way to teach reading?

Elizabeth's answer is 'yes'. However, as professionals, many teachers are asking themselves why they should change their methods.

What are the benefits for those they teach?
How is synthetic phonics different from other phonics?
At what age are children ready for phonics?
What activities help children learn to read?
When should children begin to read books?
How do spelling and handwriting fit in?
What is the best way to cater for individual learning styles?
What about comprehension?
What about a literacy rich environment?
How can teachers help older children and adults learn to read?
What programmes are available to support teaching and how do they choose between them? Now they have the government’s programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’, do schools need another programme?

If you would like answers to any of these questions, please contact Teach to Read. Elizabeth will tailor her training according to your circumstances and the questions raised by your staff.

Training can be about the initial teaching of reading, or progression, or helping older children or adults with reading difficulties, or preparing children to read in a pre-school setting. It can be adapted for advisors, headteachers, teachers, student teachers, teaching assistants, preschool staff, carers and parents.

Teachers from the Caribbean spoke at the Conference. Find out more about the project: Teaching Reading in the Caribbean from SEN Magazine.

For the past forty years, many teachers have been told that children should learn everything by discovery and problem solving. With this philosophy, the role of the teacher is not to teach, but to organise activities and provide the right learning environment. There is no doubt that this is effective in some situations, but for learning how to read words, direct teaching is more effective. Certainly a few children are able to work out the alphabetic code by themselves and some manage when they are trained to guess from a range of clues. However, at least 20% of children fail to learn to read without direct teaching. In fact, all children benefit when their teacher’s role is to teach to read.

Politics Michael Gove is the new Secretary of State for Education in the UK. What will this mean for the teaching of reading in English schools?