Has Nessy developed its own phonics structure or does it follow the structure of another programme?

The Nessy programme structure is based upon 40 years of teaching and training by Pat Jones. Pat is the founder of the Bristol Dyslexia Centre and Belgrave School. She has been awarded an O.B.E. for her services to dyslexia. The programme structure was refined by Pat with the help of the specialist teachers and educational phycologists at the Bristol Dyslexia Centre and Belgrave School. The Centre was established in 1987 and has been used successfully with many thousands of children. Pat trained with the Diane Hanbury King in New York and was primarily influenced by the Orton-Gillingham programme but was also familiar with the work of Kathleen Hickey, Beve Hornsby M.B.E and Frula Shear. Nessy Learning was established in 1999 by her son Mike Jones, RSA Dp. Sp.LD. LLB., dyslexia specialist and author of the best-selling book ‘Dyslexia Explained’. The programme has been used with millions of children worldwide.

Nessy Learning closely follows academic research and continually updates the programme so it is in-line with the Science of Reading. Nessy undertakes on-going research into the effectiveness of the programme. The Nessy content is now guided by Tiffany James, the Director of Educational Development, a dyslexia specialist and qualified assessor who was trained by Susan Barton. She is a certified structured language teacher and was one of the first one hundred people in the world to pass the prestigious qualification examination from the Centre for Effective Reading Instruction.

In comparison, the respected and effective resources of Alpha-to-Omega (1974) and Toe-by-Toe (1994) are paper-based. Alpha-to-Omega was highly influenced by Orton-Gillingham and the latest 6^th edition was released in 2006. Toe-by-Toe (1994) uses repeated reading Analytic Phonics rather than Structured Synthetic Phonics.