Sadly, Geoff, and wrongly, Nick Gibb is often mocked by people because of his perpetual promotion of the need for 'Systematic Synthetic Phonics' - but he is right! And thank goodness for his appreciation of the need for SSP for all children.
Over a number of years there have been various initiatives where the government has funded, or part-funded, scrutinised phonics programmes, their associated training, and decodable reading books.
Schools minister Nick Gibb survives another reshuffle
https://www.tes.com/news/schools-minist ... -reshuffle
Nick Gibb is to continue in his role as schools minister following Boris Johnson's ministerial reshuffle, it has been confirmed.
The phonics campaigner, who is the longest-serving schools minister of recent years, has retained his post at the Department for Education alongside education secretary Gavin Williamson.
This is a reminder of a news item back in January 2019:
Nick Gibb: The phonics wars are 'over'
Minister claims evidence has 'finally trumped rhetoric' in the debate over how best to teach reading
https://www.tes.com/news/nick-gibb-phon ... s-are-over
Nick Gibb has declared victory in the phonics wars by saying that the "debate is over" about what is the best way to teach reading.
The school standards minister said that while there were still commentators "desperately clinging to romantic notions" about reading, it was time for the debate to move on to "which phonics programmes are most effective".
Mr Gibb was a keynote speaker today at the 'Wonder Years' conference on the knowledge-rich curriculum, organised by Parents and Teachers for Excellence.
In his speech, Mr Gibb said: "Teachers, researchers and policymakers will continue to debate the means for achieving their shared aims at conferences like this one.
"But this doesn’t mean that these debates shouldn’t change and become more focused over time, as more evidence is unearthed teachers can be more confident in what works."
He went on: "No longer is it tenable for example to argue against using high-quality phonics programme when teaching children to read. The 'look and say' versus phonics debate is over.
We know that the phonics wars should be over, but still we have people doing their utmost to undermine and criticise the promotion of systematic synthetic phonics - people who in effect serve to distract teachers and student-teachers, and special needs teachers, from delivering the best educational experience for learners' foundational literacy.
This is very upsetting but thanks to Twitter and other social media networks, more and more people are aware that there is a better way, a best way, to teach reading and writing in the English language.
We still need pioneers all over the world, because much of the world chooses to teach and work, at least in part, in the English language.