Letter And Sounds

[Guest]

A colleague and I have been asked to run a training course for all support staff to introduce (and teach them how to 'do it') Letters and Sounds. They will each then be expected to deliver materials to the children. Some of the staff (eg. my nursery nurse and support staff who have delivered ELS and ALS) are used to delivering phonics activities/sessions, but for others it will be completely new. We haven't yet worked out who will covered which Phases, but the idea is that the children will be slotted into which ever phase they are working at, across the whole FS/KS1 - we're not sure quite how this will work, but that is the theory.

 

Has anyone delivered training to support staff, and if so have you any ideas or suggestions as to what to do?

 

We have thought about running through the Phases, highlighting where things have changed from Steps in Progression in Phonics (for those who have used this) - and explaining how these relate broadly to which age group. Then either doing a 'terminology quiz' (answers not to be collected!) or just explaining some of the terminology they will encounter in the Letter and Sounds document. Also going through correct articulation and explaining why this is so important. We then thought they could have some time to explore the CD from Letter and Sounds as I think this has some good examples on - though if we knew who was going to cover which phases they could focus in on just one part which would be better. Then time for discussion and possibly looking at a couple of examples of planning from different phases.

 

Sorry for the length of the post - but I'd be grateful for any ideas.

 

Harricroft.

 

PS - Training to be delivered Monday afternoon Only found out about it Friday lunchtime as we were having a working lunch to prepare for next week's sports day!

Edited July 7, 2007 by Guest

[mundia]

Know that feeling harricroft, Im doing the same thing for the phase and they've only given me two hours.

You're thinking along the exact same lines as me which is reassuring, I also want to look at articulation of sounds and terminology, I know many of my staff don't know what grapheme is and don't know the difference between a digraph and consonant cluster so I think that is time well spent.

I also want to emphasized the importance of phase one particularly for our children (100% EAL) and how it isn't to be rushed. I have seen planning appearing on the internet and I'm a bit concerned that the message is that phase one takes only 7 weeks, at one aspect a week then you move onto phase two. Im very keen to keep phase one very much at the heart of nursery, although with a poor OFSTED behind us this looks like a losing battle.

I also plan to look at bits from the DVD which I think is on the whole very good, and want to point out that a lt of the activities don't need a lot of resources.

I will also look at the word list for phases 2-4 as some are different from the current reception list.

[Marion]

Letters and Sounds emphasises that Phase 1 is continuous and has no time limit and that it should begin first but also run along side the other phases. I think it is important that this is made clear in any training. So staff may be covering Phase Two - Six sounds / words /skills but they should continue all the "good practice" of Phase One.

[Susan]

I have interpreted this 7 week phase one approach to be ideal for children in reception classes with no attached nursery, like mine. I can focus on one aspect of phase1 at a time without feeling rushed to move on and assess the children's skills so that when we start Phase 2 I can continue phase 1 activities concentrating on those aspects that need further attention and also knowing that I have introduced some of the skills they will need before.

 

I read somewhere that reception children were expected to get to about the end of phase 3? Which also gives nurseries like yours, Mundia, permission to concentrate on Phase 1 before rushing into phase 2?

[Marion]

Reception goes to the end of Phase Four but it is quite possible to cover 2-4 in reception.

[Inge]

as Fs 1 (pre-school) we have been told to use Phase 1 while children are with us, and rest will follow in reception.

 

Inge

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

Good luck with your training mundia - as you say it's reassuring to know we seem to be on the same track. I agree Phase 1 shouldn't be covered in 7 weeks, but take as long as the children need to be ready to tackle the more structured (?) phonics.

 

Can I also check everyone's understanding about Phase 1 - I thought at the initial meeting someone asked whether Aspect 1 should be covered first, then Aspect 2 etc, and the response, I thought, was that you dip into them, not just deliver one aspect at a time. Did anyone else get this message, or have I got it wrong? Don't want to be giving out duff information.

 

Harricroft.

[Susan]

I havent had any formal training!