Teacher exceeds four million downloads of free reading aids

A primary school teacher, who specialises in phonics to help children develop their literacy and numeracy skills, has become one of the Times Educational Supplement’s most successful free shops.

Dave Bryant teaches Key Stage 1 children (Years 1 and 2) at Northwood Primary School and his resources have been downloaded more than four million times worldwide.

He explained: “As a primary teacher, we often spend a lot of our weekends making resources to use in class. So, as a teacher in Key Stage 1, we teach reading using phonics – where a letter or group of letters (graphemes) make a sound.

“For example, the word ‘dog’ is made up of the letters D.O.G (dee, ooh, gee) but children learn by saying sounds the letters make – d-o-g. When these sounds are made and then said together, they are blended to ‘make’ the word.

“When I started teaching, we wanted to move away from a lot of daily photocopying, so I started making sets of phonic cards, enough for a group of children around a table.

“These cards reflected the sounds and letters that the children were working on. I then laminated each set for use in class.

“Of course, I still have the computer files, which I found I could share on-line back in 2014 on the Times Educational Supplement website: ‘Dave Bryant’s Shop – Teaching Resources – TES’.

“Not thinking about it too much, I gradually added my resources, for free, each week whilst using them myself in my class. After a couple of years my resources were being downloaded quite a lot and I was nominated for a TES award. This included going to London for a gala meal. I didn’t win but it was fun!

“Last weekend, my resources tipped over 4,000,000 downloads. What I think is wonderful is that all these resources, mine and many others’, are available across the world for free.

“So, in my case, if any teacher is teaching phonics or, as I found out, teaching English as an additional language, they might use my resources. Teachers at my school use them too.

“More than 1,000 reviews have been left over time including a head teacher from an orphanage in Africa. Most are from hard-working teachers who appreciate a decent ready-made resource that has saved them some valuable time on a Sunday afternoon!”

Dave’s store can be found at: tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/trummy13.