Two and a Half Years of Talking About Phonics (And Why I'm Still Not Bored)

Someone asked me this weekend whether I ever get bored of talking about phonics. I had to laugh... and it's a fair question! Today actually marks two and a half years since I first started posting about phonics on Instagram, and I've posted nearly every day since. That's a lot of phonics!

But the honest answer is no!! I've never been bored of it. Because for me, it was never really about phonics. It's always been about helping children learn to read. And I thought I'd tell you why.

I've wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. I used to line up my teddies and teach them lessons before I could even read myself. Every work experience placement I chose was in a school. I honestly never considered doing anything else.

When I was 23, I got a place on Teach First and started teaching English in an inner-city secondary school in London. I looked younger than some of the students I was teaching, and those first few years were extremely tough but I absolutely loved every minute of it.

As I started to become more confident as a teacher, I was discovering that many of these children were arriving at secondary school without secure reading skills. That meant every lesson was much harder for them than it needed to be... because reading had never 'clicked' and their foundations weren't strong.

I soon realised that if I wanted to make the biggest difference, it probably wasn't going to be with teenagers. It was going to be much earlier, when children were first learning to read.

Teaching in my online classroom in India- we were joined daily
by frogs and spiders and snakes...
not for the faint hearted!

So I packed my bags and moved to India, where I spent six months home schooling two children, aged five and seven, in the jungle. Watching those children learn to read from the very beginning changed the way I thought about teaching. I saw first-hand how much confidence comes from slowly building the blocks, and how those early foundations affect everything that comes afterwards.

When I came back to the UK, I became Head of Literacy in a London primary school. Later, I left the classroom to train teachers instead, because I wanted to help even more children.

But there was one problem that kept coming up...

Parents wanted to help, but they didn't know how. Phonics looked completely different from when they'd been at school. They were trying their best, but it often ended in frustration for everyone involved. I kept thinking, someone needs to explain this in a way that actually makes sense.

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So, on 1st January 2024, I secretly started an Instagram account.

Me, my sideways smile, and my phonics chart...
where it all began!

I had no big plan. I certainly never imagined it would become my job. I just hoped that if I shared what I'd learnt over the years, it might make life a little easier for a few families.

Two and a half years later, there are now more than 1.3 million parents in this community, and over 300,000 families have used The Phonics App.​

That still feels completely surreal to write.

So no... I'm not bored of talking about phonics.

Because every time I explain one sound, help one parent feel more confident, or hear that a child has read their first book, I'm reminded why I started in the first place.

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Thank you for being here.

Best wishes, as always,

Miss Mabel

P.S. If you're stuck knowing how to say the phonics sounds , you'll find them all inside The Phonics App