Gordon Askew - former DfE phonics adviser welcomes thoughts

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

Gordon Askew, former DfE phonics adviser has sent an open offer for anyone to share thoughts on phonics with him via his Twitter account below.

This is an excellent opportunity for anyone with an interest in this field to open up the channels of communication with someone who has an excellent overview of the phonics scenario in England - and someone whom I know is totally committed to systematic synthetic phonics provision - with no multi-cueing reading strategies.

Anyone wishing to share thoughts on phonics with former DfE phonics adviser should please follow or contact me @ssphonix Thanks.

[john walker]

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Debbie. I like Gordon very much. He is really the only Ofsted inspector I've met who struck me as having an in-depth understanding of what phonics and phonics teaching is all about. Reader, I've followed him!

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

I agree!

And we need as many people as possible to bridge that gap between those 'in authority' and those 'at the chalkface' and those who are 'deeply specialist' and committed to the field.

Gordon carries great experience and authority about reading instruction, he has great knowledge and understanding 'of the chalkface' and he is deeply committed to the need for teachers' professional understanding and delivery of the principles of the Simple View of Reading - the technical knowledge and skills to lift the words off the page and the language comprehension to understand the words decoded.

He is also passionate about literature.

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

Getting better by the day, Gordon has now started his own blog dedicated to phonics!

Thank goodness we have someone else who is standing up for the Year One Phonics Screening Check and explaining its importance very clearly:

http://ssphonix.blogspot.co.uk