[senco-forum] Reading Reform Conference

I attended the conference organised by this organisation yesterday. What a  
worthwhile day! I found it truly inspirational to hear like-minded peopled  
talking about the teaching of reading. I was trained by Violet Brand (a great  
lady) in the early eighties and have been using synthetic phonics ever since,  
even when phonics was a dirty word!

At the conference we heard Jim Rose talk about the Rose Review, then a  range 
of other speakers including Ruth Miskin, Sue Lloyd (Jolly Phonics) Diana  
McGuiness and others.The main messages I came away with were:
1. We need to be absolutely relentless in making sure that every child  
learns to read. There are no excuses and it is almost irrelevant what the  
childrens' backgrounds are - we work with the child we have and there is no  reason 
why they cannot be taught to read.
2. Teachers are far too obedient in following whatever the government  
decides to throw at them. We are professionals and we need to make judgements  based 
on that and our knowledge of the children!

Janice Rolnick
SENCO/AST