Meet the Team

Susan Case, David Philpot and John Walker are the co-authors of Sounds-Write. Other trainers are listed below.

John Walker

John has been a qualified teacher, university lecturer and teacher trainer for over thirty years, teaching English language and literature in many different countries and settings. He is a graduate of the University of Sussex and holds master degrees from the Universities of Sussex and Warwick. He is qualified in the teaching of English as a foreign language and holds an advanced certificate in English language teaching from the University of Edinburgh.

He trains teaching practitioners in Sounds-Write and promotes the Sounds-Write programme in schools and other educational institutions. In addition, he is an associate lecturer for the Open University, teaching on Discovering English and Children’s Literature, in addition to several early years courses.

Susan Case

Susan is a qualified and experienced primary school teacher and lecturer. She has taught throughout Oxfordshire and the South-West, running workshops for parents and inset training courses for teachers. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of Delaware, USA and a PGCE from Oxford Brookes University.

She has worked extensively with linguistic phonic methods with children throughout the primary and secondary age ranges, both in a clinical setting and in schools. She is currently teaching children with special needs on a part-time basis and working on the promotion of Sounds-Write in schools.

David Philpot

After reading a science psychology degree at Manchester University, David Philpot taught in mainstream and special schooling for six years before training as an educational psychologist in 1974. He subsequently worked as a child/educational psychologist for the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan with special interests in behavioural psychology, neuroscience and psychometrics until he retired in 2005.

Dave feels privileged to have been able to play a small part in transforming that current theoretical knowledge about language and literacy into the practical teaching programme that has become Sounds-Write.

 

 

Trainers

Jane Bent

Jane has 30 years experience teaching in primary and middle schools across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. She has worked as both a class teacher and Senco in a junior school and a literacy support teacher in the Cambridgeshire Learning Support Service, before moving on to be Head of Inclusion in a large middle school  in Central Bedfordshire for 11 years. In 2008 this school was judged outstanding by Ofsted and the provision and inclusion for vulnerable pupils was identified as a particular strength.

Jane has now worked in Bedford Borough Local authority for the past 3 years as a Specialist Advisory Teacher for Inclusion within the Psychology and Advisory Support Service and provides advice and training for Senco’s, teachers and support staff on all issues relating to inclusion, but with a particular focus on the linguistic phonics approach to reading.

Ginny Campbell

Ginny Campbell has worked in primary, special and secondary education and was SENCO at Kingsbridge Community College for 10 years. She has been running courses on inclusion, TA induction and literacy for the past 9 years, and provides Sounds-Write training to teachers and TAs in Devon and neighbouring LAs. Ginny can be contacted via Sounds-Write.

Mary Gladstone

Mary Gladstone is a qualified primary school teacher with 28 years experience both in Australia and the United Kingdom, twenty-four of which have been in working with children who have learning and behavioural difficulties.

Mary runs Sounds-Write courses in Australia (New South Wales), read more on our 'Australia' page.

Alison Halliwell

Alison has taught in mainstream and special schools and worked in a number of local authority central services. Involved in Sounds-Write since its inception, she has had an interest and involvement in inclusive strategies to teach literacy throughout her twenty five year career. She holds a B.Ed and B.Sc (Hons) in Psychology, and currently delivers Sounds-Write training in the North West. 

Sarah Horner

Sarah Horner is an experienced teacher and literacy trainer. She has taught in a variety of situations, across the primary and secondary ranges, both in England and overseas. This experience includes class, group and individual teaching. Over the past eight years she has combined teaching children with reading difficulties with the training of teachers and support staff in a linguistic phonics approach to reading. She supplies Sounds-Write training in a range of settings across London.