Teaching Reading



Whether your school is partially open, completely closed or returning to a ‘new normal’, Phonics Hero is here to support you. We explain how Phonics Hero can help teachers keep up phonics learning during these tricky times.

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When a child stumbles over how to read or spell a word, many parents feel stumped with how to help and end up just giving the answer. Experienced teacher, Shirley Houston, shows parents how to help when their child gets stuck.

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Are you a little flummoxed with how to help your child learn tricky words? Read on for home-ready, easy activities that make learning these irregular, high-frequency words fun for both little and big kids!

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Give your Easter Egg Hunt a phonics twist by decoding the clues to find the chocolate treats. We’ve made the cards and done the thinking; all you need to do is the hiding (and maybe a bit of munching)!

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Download our Phonics Treasure Hunt Cards. Perfect for those who are currently home schooling – children can practise their decoding and, because they can use them independently, parents will get some well-deserved peace!

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How do you get students to start reading at home before they’re ready for decodable books? Teacher Stephanie Brighton shares her school’s simple, effective (and pocket-sized) solution to bridging the home reading gap, complete with free print-outs.

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What are the R Controlled Vowels and how do you teach them? A thorough explanation, plus ideas, resources and tips to ensure you effectively teach these sounds.

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Phonics Hero CEO, Katherine Wood, shares her favourite phonics activities to keep up childrens’ progress during the Christmas holidays with downloadable worksheets, creative ideas, and resources for parents of budding readers.

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Phonemic Awareness is the strongest predictor of reading and spelling success. The schools who achieve incredible reading results are often those that have honed their student’s phonemic awareness skills. This blog post explores what phonemic awareness is, and how it sits alongside phonics. It also provides teaching ideas to incorporate it into your lessons.


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As adults it feels like we learn to read by sight, but it’s a lot more complex than that. Guest blogger, Marnie Ginsberg, explains the most compelling and well-researched theory of how learners acquire the ability to read English words. It’s not just what we ‘see’ on the surface!

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