Every grapheme-phoneme correspondence the Department for Education expects a Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme to teach is taught in the Speech Sound Pics® Approach. What's different is the delivery model. Validation or approval requires whole-class fidelity to a single scheme, the same correspondence, in the same way for every child. SSP teaches the same content, in the same sequence, but lets each child move through it at their own pace. After they have taught the routines, teachers are observers, and able to more closely monitor the progress of every child. 

Although the Speech Sound Pics® Approach included systematic phonics for 30 minutes each day, for as long as each child needed the routine, this sat within a full 2-hour literacy block for Reception and Year 1. The block also included The Speedy Six Spelling Routine, exploring untaught correspondences and morphology, Snap and Crack (Cracking Comprehension), and Rapid Writing for sentence construction, grammar and punctuation. Together, this covered every requirement outlined in the Australian Curriculum under one approach, no other programmes required. At the time, this was difficult for teachers to implement, as they were expected to run additional programmes alongside it, including the C2C curriculum in Queensland, where Emma Hartnell-Baker (Miss Emma) was based.

For over ten years, UK teachers have taught reading exactly as instructed by the Department for Education. Phonics screening check pass rates rose sharply after the check's introduction in 2012, from 58% to 81% by 2016, then plateaued, sitting at 80% in 2025, unchanged from 2024. Yet the Education Policy Institute found no evidence that the phonics screening check has improved reading results at Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2, or narrowed the attainment gap between higher and lower-attaining pupils. For over a decade, roughly 1 in 4 children have continued to leave primary school below the expected standard in reading and writing. And reading for pleasure fell to its lowest level in 20 years in 2025, with only 1 in 3 children saying they enjoy reading in their free time. Whatever rising PSC scores were meant to signal, it isn't reaching the outcomes that actually matter.
 

Mark Seidenberg, one of the few researchers willing to publicly question aspects of the Science of Reading orthodoxy, argues explicit instruction should exist to enable implicit, self-directed learning, not replace it indefinitely. As much explicit instruction as a child needs, and no more.

Teachers who have used the Speech Sound Pics® Approach, or are using it now, already know why this matters. Every child moves through the same Core Code, in the same sequence, at their own pace. No child sits through a lesson on a sound they mastered weeks ago. No child is left behind on one they're not ready for yet. By the end of Reception, over 90% can read and spell the 400+ Duck Level words and have secured the full Core Code. By the end of Year 1, explicit teaching is done, and children move into genuine self-teaching.

It's the same question Emma Hartnell-Baker has been asking for ten years, and the results speak for themselves. It's also exactly why the Speech Sound Pics® Approach doesn't get validated by bodies built to enforce fidelity to the opposite model, not because the content is wrong, but because the delivery doesn't match.
 

Are you interested in what the future of learning to read and spell might look like, in a classroom or at home?

Join the guided self-teaching movement: as much explicit instruction as they need, and no more.