Mona McNee

Mona's relationship with phonics began after seeing the reading progress of her son, Tim, who has Down's syndrome, stunted by ‘progressive' teaching methods. She took matters into her own hands and found that, by using a simple, structured programme of phonics she could teach Tim to read herself. Having previously been stuck on ‘Ladybird Book 2' for two years, he began reading properly within 18 months and his room is now packed full of books. She says, "It was teaching Tim, with a good phonic programme, which taught me how to teach a child to read, as well as what learning to read is really all about. It also raised big questions in my mind as to why I could successfully teach when qualified teachers could not, and that has fired my campaign ever since."

Her achievements with Tim led her to switch from teaching Geography and Economics to teaching failed readers and dyslexics using traditional phonic methods - and to great success. Recently, she taught at a reception class of a school in an underprivileged area. At year-end the class' reading age was 9 months above average and none had fallen behind - even those who had previously shown signs of dyslexia.

  • Mona helped to set up the UK branch of the (American) Reading Reform Foundation, whose sole aim is to bring phonics back to the teaching of reading. Her desire to get Britain's children reading properly was also shown as she twice ran for MP, literacy standards acting as an important plank in her platform. She believes that anybody can teach children to read, even without training: all you need is a simple phonic programme and some common sense.
     

 

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