Sylvia Phillips

Sylvia Phillips

Sylvia Phillips, BA, DASE, MEd (SEN), AMBDA, began her career as a teacher of English in secondary schools where she first became interested in why some learners had severe literacy difficulties. She later joined Manchester Metropolitan University where she was a Principal Lecturer, Head of SEN, and then Head of Continuing Professional Development. At MMU she developed the first courses for specialist dyslexia teachers at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. During her time there, she also continued to work in primary, secondary and special schools both with teachers and directly with pupils. She developed and taught on SEN courses for teachers in the UK and was the UK partner (with Italy, Belgium and Spain) developing and teaching EU courses on Inclusion and SEN for European educationalists. She has served on the Accreditation Board of the British Dyslexia Association and has also been involved in several dyslexia research projects. She is currently course leader of the specialist dyslexia teachers course at Glyndwr University, Wales. She has co-authored "Putting the Code to Work" (Primary and Secondary editions, 1998, MMU MET Publications), "Inspection and Beyond" (1997, Pearson), "Management Skills for SEN co-ordinators" (1999, Falmer Press), and "A Multi-sensory Teaching System for Reading" (1998, MMU Publishing), a fully scripted set of materials for teaching small groups of pupils with dyslexia. Sylvia s other main areas of interest lie in learner voice, pupils social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and supporting teachers undertaking enquires into their practice.