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Phonics Reform England: Not reading reform. Phonics reform. Improving phonics for the one in five at risk of struggling to read and spell.
The Upstream Team: Preventing the Dyslexia Paradox
The team is passionate about early dyslexia risk screening and the prevention of the dyslexia paradox in Reception and Year 1. Our support plans follow IDA and Delphi guidance, which highlight early signs linked to dyslexia risk, including weak phonemic awareness and difficulties with phonological working memory. These difficulties are likely to create challenges with learning phonics.
Are you currently tutoring children? Ask about joining the team as an independent PRE Dyslexia School Advisor. We will advise schools on Individual Support Plans for every child with SEND at risk of literacy difficulties, those with a diagnosis of dyslexia, and gifted children not reaching their potential.
I’m Emma Hartnell-Baker and I have QTS and a Master’s degree in Special Educational Needs. I’m undertaking doctoral research at the University of Reading, studying how teachers make decisions when asked to support children to map words that contain GPCs not covered in their synthetic phonics programme, for example sugar, and whether accents affect their decision-making.
I have taught full time in school-managed nurseries inspected as Outstanding, and I was previously appointed as an OFSTED Inspector with responsibility for inspecting Early Years settings. I also worked for the Queensland Education Department advising schools on behaviour, and spent ten years supporting schools to improve literacy school-wide by tackling word mapping head-on.
My approach in Australia starts with Speech Sound Play to develop phonemic awareness and phonological working memory, which introduces the Core Code and can be transitioned to the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach or the systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme used by the school. It is a visual and linguistic (speech-to-print) approach to phonics, taught differently because children work through the GPCs tested in the PSC at their own pace, with teachers trained to understand the IPA and how accents impact on word mapping.
I am known for my obsession with using “Duck Hands, Speech Sound Lines and Numbers” to segment words, and showing the code (making the graphemes and phonemes visible) as the basis for supporting orthographic knowledge within the neurodiverse early years classroom: hands-on, multisensory learning to support independence early.
In 2024, I won an Unlocking Potential Award from Innovate UK, which funded MySpeekie®, the world’s first one-screen AAC for non-speaking autistic children. I am now applying for grants to expand this work with a team, testing and refining it with SALTs in an SEN specialist setting.
MyWordz® with MySpeekie® is currently being considered for the DfE EdTech Testbed pilot. We are also developing MyReadie as part of the technology, incorporating The Village with Three Corners, with the words in the first 52 books mapped orthographically. At that point children are able to read the Blue Books without the Code Overlay, as seen in the clips of Alfie below. Speech Sound Mapping is named in his EHCP.
The goal is to expand the Upstream Team with professionals working around the world, to more effectively bridge research and practice in relation to phonics. This matters because research is often lost in translation in the teaching of phonics, with some children not getting enough of the right support, while others receive extended instruction beyond what they need, rather than a system that adapts to how learning actually happens, as discussed by Mark Seidenberg. We agree that “Leaving implicit learning out of accounts of reading has resulted in overreliance on explicit instruction.” https://www.seidenbergreading.net/blog/on-structured-literacy-in-the-science-of-reading
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The focus of PRE is on making explicit instruction work for each individual, so that implicit learning can take place, and on ensuring that teachers in England understand that synthetic phonics is intended to kick-start the process. Synthetic phonics programmes cannot offer sufficient support for every child to become a fluent reader, and the Upstream Team are building a collective of professionals who can explain why this is the case and what to do about it.
You don’t need to be neurodivergent and have lived experience to join us, but it helps!
If you are a team member please login here to access the message board.
I’m AuDHD, and I’ve realised something uncomfortable.
I can’t sell to people who don’t already get what I’m saying.
The rest? They need persuading in ways that don’t come naturally to me. Sometimes it feels like manipulation, and I just can’t do it.
If you spend time in large education groups, you see it. They’re tribal. People stay at the surface because if you go deeper, into the actual detail, what’s being sold often starts to fall apart.
People argue for “explicit phonics” and against “three cueing” or “balanced literacy”, but rarely stop to unpack what that actually looks like in practice. What does “explicit” really mean? What’s actually happening for the child? That’s where things get uncomfortable, so most don’t go there.
We hear a lot about “neurodivergent entrepreneurs”, but how many of them are actually doing the marketing themselves?
Especially autistic or ADHD founders.
I watch clips on persuasion, sales psychology, “how to get anyone to buy anything”… and my heart sinks.
Because it feels like a game.
A game where you either:
• Pretend to be interested in beliefs you think are harming children
• Stay quiet about what you really think so you don’t alienate people
And I can’t do either.
I’ve got a strong sense of social justice. When I see children being let down, I feel it instantly. I want to say exactly what’s going on, not soften it.
But here’s the tension.
If I keep it simple, I keep the tribe.
“Teach phonics, not guessing.”
If I go deeper and start unpacking what “phonics” actually looks like in practice, I lose people.
Because it’s no longer a clear, simple solution.
And people want simple. They don't want to know the phonics programme may help children decode and but not any, art but not wart, horse but not worse...
That’s why quick fixes and programmes sell so well.
Even when they don’t actually work.
As an autistic person, I find it really hard to be “strategically nice” to people whose decisions I believe are causing harm, even when I know that building that relationship might help shift their thinking over time.
Persuasion is about navigating people. Meeting them where they are. Letting them move gradually.
But what if you don’t want to play that game?
I’m starting to wonder whether I should step back from trying to convince people at all. I seem to be very vad at it on social media, and yet my in-person events are always full!
Perhaps I should just stay away from social media, or get someone else to do that part.
But then they’d still need to understand the work properly.
So where does that leave me?
Right now, it feels like the only thing I can do is build something that shows what I mean, that doesn't need explaining.
Something children can use independently, without needing adults to fully understand first.
Because adults are more likely to shift when they see something working than when they’re being told.
Less talking. More showing.
When I show the code through the series of 100 books that move from simple texts to chapter books, I make the structure visible.
I show what’s needed for children to start self-teaching.
And that will show adults more than my words ever could.
Please do reach out if this resonates! I don't want to alienate anyone, by leading Phonics Reform England (PRE), just give every child the chance to experience reading for pleasure.
Emma Hartnell-Baker BEd Hons. MEd SEN
'Miss Emma'
