Yesterday’s investiture was the first for ‘services to the non-religious’. Surely a welcome sign of the increasing inclusion of non-religious people in our national life, and a validation of the collective effort of so many in the humanist movement to achieve that recognition.

This year's royalties for The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading have arrived (£5477.65). As promised, this money has been donated to Malaria Consortium. This brings the running total donated (with Gift Aid) to about £57,000 in four years. >>

The latest episode of the Impact Podcast is out now. Episode 211 - "Why I quit". Literacy Expert Panel Member, Elizabeth Nonweiler speaks out about why she has resigned from the Welsh Government panel & what's going wrong. Listen here: open.spotify.com/show/778EJMB...

Elizabeth Nonweiler has stepped down from the Welsh Government’s Expert Literacy Panel, raising serious concerns about the direction of national literacy policy. Read her resignation letter here: readingreform.org/blog/waless-...

Please read Elizabeth Nonweiler's letter if you are a primary teacher or a parent with a primary-aged child in #Wales. 'Wales’s Literacy Plans Must Change' readingreform.org/blog/waless-...

"Triangulation: moving from correlations to causation", Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine Distinguished Lecture 2025, Thursday, October 16th, 5pm, in person or online www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/school-of-...

As with almost every article written about reading in the past few years, this one has inspired a few suggestions that the focus on phonics has caused problems. I'd like to explain why I disagree. >>

For a pupil to read *anything* with fluency, they must be able to recognise the words with automaticity. Fluency relies on other things too, but automatic word recognition is fundamental. >>

A surprising story about a global seed vault where over 580 million seeds from around the world are preserved safely in the permafrost. This beautifully illustrated book is intriguing and informative. With connections to both SCI and SS, this book belongs in every school library.

Sharing for anyone overseas (i.e., not in NZ) wanting to hear a little of what NZ birdsong can sound like ⬇️

🎉 New article! 🎉 Our latest in @jidr-wiley.bsky.social measures what teachers of students with IDD know about foundational word reading and how that relates to their training and classroom instruction. #OpenAccess version here: doi.org/10.1111/jir.... @kimberlymcfadden.bsky.social

Whoever needs reminding: the Convention on Human Rights is one of the greatest achievements of European civilisation, following one of its greatest tragedies. For us to leave it would not only undermine all our own rights and freedoms, it would be a completely immoral abdication of responsibility.

US ignores home-grown education ideas that are accelerating progress overseas. fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

Vaccines don’t just prevent deadly and dangerous diseases like measles, polio and COVID-19. A new study found that people who got the shingles vaccine had a 20% lower risk of developing dementia. tcnv.link/o9EHsxy

**New blog** - It's been a while so reposts hugely appreciated. primarycolour.home.blog/2025/08/01/t...

Excellent article on the problems caused by labelling versus teaching kids what they need to know. From @paulkirschner.bsky.social

🥳 The ‘holy grail’ of reading inventions that was birthed in NZ & exported to the world has finally been dumped. Now the way is clear for children to receive scientifically-based instruction & stop being instructional casualties. H/T @kathyrastle.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

one of my colleagues at UoA Psych has gone into inner-city modern learning environment schools and simply sticks a microphone in them to measure the ambient noise. she told me "they're BARNS. it's so noisy in there that it's like kids are trying to learn next to a LAWN MOWER."

Great flash-mob. Morning by Edward Gried - and the timing as the train exits the tunnel into daylight is awesome. youtu.be/gww9_S4PNV0?...

The transportational ability of this poem is something else 🤌

Really wonderful to see @andrewcopson.bsky.social honoured with an OBE! Andrew has worked tirelessly with @humanists.uk to help voices of non-religious people (most of us in UK) to be heard - creating tangible impacts in policy, human rights and education. humanists.uk/2025/06/13/a...

Now available to everyone. Tuesday's blog post. Phonics Denialism and the Education Policy Institute. Part 2 open.substack.com/pub/andrewol...

Nobody believed us when we warned them RFK Jr.’s endgame is to eliminate all vaccines. They told us we were histrionic and hysterical. I’ve been watching RFK Jr. for 20 years. He’s antivax to the core. He really means it, and NOTHING will change his mind. He will do all he can to eliminate vaccines.

here’s this year’s Faraday lecture that inspired Sella to act. tinyurl.com/4xz9xbuz

Very much this. Bear in mind that independent schools cite ‘dyslexia’ and ‘special needs’ as justification for 25% of their students having exam access arrangements. Even the teachers know it’s gamed.

A common assumption is that reading is easy to teach. If that is so, why do 20% arrive at secondary school reading well behind their age? Read more in our blog ‘Whose Responsibility?’ wp.me/p4hKgx-82z (4 min read) & let us know what you think. #EduBlogUK #EduSky

NEW FREE POST Has reading improved in England? Drawing up the battle lines fillingthepail.substack.com/p/has-readin...

Here, @westcountryvoices.bsky.social have compiled my thread on the utterly bonkers mismanagement of Dartmoor into an easy-to-read article: westcountryvoices.co.uk/prepare-your...

Engaging in, or condoning, practices based on false information maintains misconceptions and multiplies its influence. Our blog on the use of coloured overlays in schools: ‘Papering Over the Reading Gap’ explains more wp.me/p4hKgx-7Xq (7 min read). #EduBlogUK #EduSky

Not long until proof.kucharski.io is out in North America! To mark the launch – and the power of changing your mind – I want to hear from you: What’s a 'fact' or urban myth you believed for years... until you realised it wasn’t true? Best reply* below gets a free signed copy of the book. 📚

It’s all a matter of angles. And from this angle, it makes total sense. 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇮🇸🇬🇧🇳🇴—-> 🇪🇺 🙌

Exeter, Saturday 29 March @devonforeurope.bsky.social @cornwall4eu.bsky.social @teamlabouruk.bsky.social

"Nature vs. Nurture" was first phrased by Shakespeare: "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick." — The Tempest (1611)

We don’t need to go back to policies of labelling children dyslexic and leaving them to flounder for years, with ‘assistive technology’ as our get out of jail card. They can learn to read. It’s a matter of teaching expertise. Not magic pens and dyslexic fonts.

Being able to point to an invisible, unverifiable ‘condition’ is a convenient way to avoid responsibility for students’ lack of progress. Read more in our blog ‘Barriers to Success’ wp.me/p4hKgx-121 (11 minute read). #EduSky #EduBlogUK

Happy International Women’s Day 2025. May your dresses always have pockets.

Charles Darwin never saw the weirdest resident of the Galapagos Islands, which is a shame, because it's a naturalist's dream (and was named in his honor). Let's talk about the utter weirdness of Ogcocephalus darwini, the Red-lipped Batfish.

Good morning. If you are interested in early reading instruction in Scotland then don’t miss my article for TES Scotland I argue for a phonics first approach and to rid ourselves of cueing approaches that damage children’s learning www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Does your school use coloured paper or overlays to treat reading problems, despite an absence of scientific evidence for the practice? Our blog ‘Papering Over the Reading Gap’ explains more wp.me/p4hKgx-7Xq (7 min read). #EduSky #UKEd

Teaching systematically is more efficient for our students. We've explained more in this ‘Code-Teaching or Code-Breaking?’ wp.me/p4hKgx-B (a 3 min read). #UKEd #EduBlogUk #EduSky

Synthetic Phonics: A Historical Perspective. Gillian Evans interviews Rhona Johnston. 2023. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

TAKING THE NARROW VIEW, Kamhi "argued (to Catts) that many assessments of #reading conflated word reading accuracy and fluency with comprehension, which could lead to misconceptions about why children performed poorly on reading tests". www.aft.org/ae/winter202... 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES #ScienceOfReading

Iced gem sweet 🍬

Reading problems in secondary school create a complex web of consequences for mental health, confidence and self-esteem – as well as limiting academic progress. Read more in our book. Link to our book: (Amazon): ow.ly/lyeX50R2ol9 #EduSky #UKEd

Could illiteracy be caused by the way we teach? What do you think? Read more in our blog ‘Code-Teaching or Code-Breaking?’ wp.me/p4hKgx-B (3 min read). #EduSky #EduBlogUK

Dyslexia isn't linked to greater creativity. A meta-analysis of 20 studies found no consistent advantage, debunking the myth of dyslexia as a "creative gift." #Dyslexia #Creativity #MetaAnalysis Read more: shorturl.at/uZkAj

theliteracyblog.com/2016/02/16/t... ”The thing is that the idea that spellings of sounds in words are regular or not regular simply doesn’t have any logic to it. What does make sense is to talk about the gradations between common (i.e. frequently encountered) spellings and highly unusual spellings.”

Pink Fungi are the cutest. 🥰Would you agree? Atheniella cf. adonis 🇵🇪