ABSTRACT
The fi rst is a famous footballer originally from Liverpool; the second is a flavour of crisps. It is the irregularities of English that make it demanding for children to learn and for teachers to teach. Your ability to understand children’s sophisticated attempts at spelling (that may at fi rst glance seem incomprehensible), is one of the abilities you will acquire as part of your initial training. Not only will you learn to ‘decode’ their attempts, but you will also learn how to understand the child’s thinking that lies behind their attempts to make meaning.
