Dear teachers,

What a long way we’ve come.

Thirty years ago, when I was a headteacher in Tower Hamlets, phonics was fiercely contested. Teachers came to my Saturday morning training sessions undercover.

“Please don’t tell my headteacher I’ve been here,” they said.

Journalists visited our school to see how children in one of the most disadvantaged areas of the country were learning to read and write so successfully.

Our goal was simple: teach every child to read and then keep them reading.

In 2002 when I set up Read Write Inc. (then RML), I had no idea quite how hard it would be to persuade schools to embrace phonics.

I have learnt a huge amount over that time, but one principle has never changed: we are only as good as the outcomes we achieve for our struggling readers. What works for these children works even better and faster for everyone else.

Every child can and must learn to read. That belief has guided every decision I’ve made. And over the years, we have continually improved what we do in response to what we see in schools.

Since our Online Assessment launched in 2022, we have collected an unprecedented amount of data. Every six weeks, we see the progress of half a million children. We know more than ever about where children succeed, where they falter, and therefore, what it takes to ensure that no child is left behind.

In 2024, I took this evidence to the Oxford University Press board and asked whether we could take the biggest step forward in the programme’s history.

Two months later, they said yes.

Since then, I have worked with a core group of experienced and talented trainers, and the best authors and editors. Together, we have examined every step, refined every routine and created a powerful new assessment system. They have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, trialling and testing every detail in schools, while I have personally overseen every lesson plan, every story and every illustration.

When I told the trainers that everything we had learnt over nearly three decades had now been distilled into a new Read Write Inc., there was a moment of real joy.

We knew what was possible: fewer children struggling, more children reading with confidence, and more lives transformed through reading.