My name is Nicola New and I have been teaching for nearly 20 years. Currently, I am Deputy Head at a small school in an economically deprived area. I have a wealth of experience teaching in both Key Stage One and Two and am currently phonics lead and SENCO. In my role, I have taken part in a number of deep dives and have taken part in training for CLPE who asked me to write a blog for them about my experiences of teaching phonics. I am passionate about phonics and early reading and love sharing my knowledge and skills with others. I am passionate about quality teaching for all with an emphasis on giving the best possible deal to the bottom 20% of readers. We have recently become a Rocket Phonics School and love the text based approach to the programme.

Career: Primary School Deputy, ITT Trainer, LA Consultant, Freelance Consultant
Extensive experience in phonics, both in schools and publishing.
Author ‘Write your own book’ (DK), ‘Spell Check’ (DK) and Reception phonics books (Monster Phonics)

Beverly Sace is a literacy consultant based in Hong Kong. She has been training teachers on phonics, reading, writing and grammar since 2010. Trained as a language teacher for early years with a masters in Teaching English to Young Learners from the University of York, she has delivered synthetic phonics training across Asia and has been described as probably Asia’s best synthetic phonics trainer. In addition to delivering phonics training, she is consulted by international and local schools to design and develop bespoke phonics curricula and materials. Beverly’s practice is based on the Science of Reading and makes use of literacy research to inform her work.
Beverly is the author of Vocabfonix — a practical English language teaching and learning reference that uses synthetic phonics to teach English learners how to read and spell A1-B1 vocabulary, rather than the traditional foreign language learning approaches. She has held Curriculum Director positions in various educational organizations. She is currently training to become an educational psychologist.

Teaching for over 14 years, from Nursery to Y5, has provided Trish with a wealth of experience, commitment and passion, which has enabled her to enhance and promote creative ways to support learning. This has been achieved by creating lessons that are stimulating, fun and memorable.  Oozing with energy and love for learning, Trish has lead parent workshops, staff CPD in her school and across her MAC and she is now training and supporting our future teachers.

Grace has been teaching in primary schools for 6 years. Becoming Phonics and Early Reading Leader and Key Stage One Coordinator after her second year in teaching, she quickly developed a true passion for early reading and Systematic Synthetic Phonics. As Phonics and Early Reading Leader, Grace has developed her reputation within the Birmingham local community as a Phonics expert. From this, she has connected with partner schools to deliver high-quality, interactive Phonics and Early Reading training and workshops, to develop Phonics provision within primary schools to support the reading needs of every child.
Recently, Grace has been working cooperatively with a secondary special school, providing effective and reliable support as a dedicated consultant, coaching, supporting and advising to create a customised Phonics programme for children with very specific needs. This is something that Grace is so passionate about; ensuring that every child receives an outstanding reading curriculum.  
Accomplishing a Masters in Education degree, Grace’s in-depth research record and experience as a teacher and trainer, allows her to combine her thorough subject-knowledge with understanding the practicalities (and sometimes unpredictability!) of everyday school life, instilling confidence in everyone that she supports. 

Rob Randel has been a primary teacher for 15 years. Having promoted high quality and evidence-informed early reading instruction for several years, he has a wealth of experience in advising school leaders and teachers about the science of reading, and how they can best evaluate their current provision. Since 2021, he has been a committee member of the Reading Reform Foundation and an advisory group member to the International Foundation of Early Reading Instruction. 

Jo Heffer has more than twenty years’ experience as a teacher and education consultant. After successfully leading literacy in primary schools in Walthamstow and St Helens, and being a team leader for the Hounslow Language Service, she became Literacy Consultant for Windsor and Maidenhead. As a consultant, she was fully involved with the implementation of Talk for Writing and was a lead consultant for the Every Child a Writer programme. 
In 2012, she became a freelance consultant and since then has run training courses for AQA, OSIRIS, the Primary Writing Project as well as running her own bespoke training for schools across the country. These include training on the teaching of phonics, spelling, grammar, reading, writing and assessment. She offers a wide range of consultancy work for schools as well as working on the School Direct training in Windsor and Maidenhead. She is an accredited FFT Wave 3 trainer. 
From September 2021, she will be leading on primary assessment in Ealing Local Authority. 
In September 2020, her first book, ‘Grammar First Aid for Primary Teachers’ was published. She has also written a number of online resources for Teachit Primary.