All Aboard Phonics SSP – free to download

All Aboard Phonics is the very latest complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, designed to meet the new requirements from the UK DfE. It takes children from early phonics introduction through to the Year One Phonics Screening Check.

You will find that the structure of All Aboard Phonics is based on the Letters and Sounds curriculum, moderately updated for 2021. If your teachers are familiar with Letters and Sounds, the programme will be easy for them to deliver.

We are making full PDF downloads of every element free to access for any school. The complete system will be being published in July and August 2021. You can download a copy of our Phase 2 manual, to take a look:

The new 2021 criteria set by the UK government

In March the UK government announced that they would be shelving Letters and Sounds as a phonics package, since it is not a complete system.

They are now expecting every school to use a fully integrated and complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme. Letters and Sounds with a mixed set of resources pulled together independently will no longer be acceptable.

In reality, the expectation is now too high for a DIY approach. Your integrated phonics programme will now need to include:

1. A complete synthetic phonics curriculum and set of manuals
2. The printed flashcards and posters needed to complement the SSP manuals
3. A set of decodable books that align with the curriculum of your SSP
4. An integrated intervention manual for dealing with any children falling behind
5. A fully structured training system to ensure consistent delivery

To help schools deal with this change, we are publishing the very latest SSP programme in summer of 2021 and making every element free to download. To have a peak, download a copy of our Phase 2 manual above.

How to create a centre of literacy excellence

An average school can get around 85% success rate with their literacy, but excellent schools are shooting for the high 90s. They find a way for those few struggling readers to succeed.

So the only real difference is in how a school helps those children who find it hard. Just doing more of the same (that has already not worked) is not normally enough.

The unique element to All Aboard Phonics is our extensive guidance for helping the struggling readers, in our All Aboard Phonics Plus manual. You can explore our 15 years of research into the causes of reading difficulty through our book The 9 Main Causes of Reading Difficulty.

Designed for teachers, by teachers

All Aboard Phonics has been designed by Katie Selwood, a teacher with years of experience delivering phonics, and David Morgan, a Master of Education with years of experience in literacy research.

The programme has also been designed with input from teachers working in classrooms around the country at every step of the way, to ensure the resources meet teachers’ needs: 

• Clear, easy-to-digest layout
• Time-efficient with everything you need in one place
• Extra activities for children of different abilities

We also welcome feedback and requests for resources! Most of the materials you see have been prompted by those. We do our best to create what people need.

Child-friendly

All Aboard Phonics taps into children’s imaginations to make learning fun and easy. Children enjoy learning the memorable pictophone characters we use, which support their phonemic awareness and segmenting and blending skills.

Lesson plans include funny stories and games which engage children in a multi-sensory way.

The system also has a sister app, which uses games to embed what the child has learned in the classroom. This is a huge help to parents, because it allows home reading practice to take place without stress or fuss. Contact us by email at schools@dm-ed.com to beta test the app.

Backed by research

We are a research team entirely focused on making reading and spelling progress easier and quicker for anyone, anywhere. We research as we teach: we help the children, we learn from them, and we adjust our methodology to achieve better outcomes.

With a background in helping struggling readers and dyslexics, we have come to have a detailed knowledge of the reasons why bright children often do not currently learn to read to the best of their ability.

In 2018, we published our findings in a book, The 9 Main Causes of Reading Difficulty. In an independent academic trial, children using our intervention programme called Easyread, gained on average 2 years of reading age in just 6 months. You can see testimonials from teachers and parents for Easyread in the footer of this page.

Equipped with this expertise, we have created an SSP programme which will prevent children from falling through the cracks. You will see more of your children succeeding who may have previously failed.

Those who are struggling will be supported by the All Aboard Phonics Plus manual provided as part of the complete programme. Fewer struggling readers in any primary school leads to better overall literacy results, happier students and improved parent-teacher relations. It also frees up time for the rest of the curriculum.

Free downloads, free app, free training

Access to our teacher manuals – including lesson plans, worksheets, and information – comes at no cost. We are going to share each PDF free of charge. Here again is the first manual:

 All Aboard Phonics Phase 2 Teacher Manual pdf download

Or you will be able to buy the printed manuals at the normal cost for that sort of resource.

We have an All Aboard app, for use in the classroom or at home, which is also free to access. Contact us (schools@dm-ed.com) to join the beta testing of the app.

Finally, we are providing online training that your team will be able to access at any time in bite-sized chunks, also for free.

Library of ebooks

Our app also includes a library of ebooks as an optional extra.  The library is designed to take a learner from a position of early decoding confidence through to fluent reading, ahead of expectation for the child’s age.

It is the income from our library that allows us to deliver the SSP programme to you for free. But subscribing to the library is completely optional.

In our view, once phonics has been successfully introduced, the next phase of reading development comes from reading practice. That is what our library achieves, by delivering fun, interesting materials that make early reading a richer experience. It includes what we call Hybrid Books, in which the app reads some of the text out and the learner reads individual words, which are at the appropriate level for them. In that way we can engage them with any content subject, without the reading becoming too hard for them.

Register your interest in our complete SSP programme

Tell us if you are interested in receiving a copy of the programme with the form below: