Eyfs And Letters And Sounds In Fs1

[Guest]

Sorry if I'm asking difficult questions this morning!

 

Is anyone else in a preschool setting working with feeder schools with regard to Letters & Sounds? One of ours [last year there were 7] is giving us the impression that we have the responsibilty to make sure children have covered Phase 1 by school entry. This school is talking about offering us training to help us do this! I've talked to our support teacher about this and it's a case of 'watch this space'!

 

I've just had, hand-delivered because of the postal strike, a sheet from which summarizes Letters & Sounds Phase 1 by Aspect with a column for 'Date'. e.g. 'I can play an instrument to match the sound an animal might make - Date.

 

This looks very much like a ticklist that says 'Date' instead of 'tick'. I went to the Letteres & Sounds document where it says 'The activities in Phase One are mainly adult-led...'

 

I thought there were to be fewer adult-led activities in EYFS. I'm sure I heard 1 per session suggested. How then are my staff supposed to provide activities to meet these 60-odd outcomes and cover the rest of the curriculum? Or do you think the feeder school is over reacting?

Edited October 9, 2007 by Guest

[mundia]

Phase one can continue throughout school, even after phase 2 has begun, but a lot of emphasis is being placed on this being a focus for the 'nursery year'

The nursery attached to the Children's Centre where I work have had training provided by the LA so I think there is an intention for nurseries and preschools to take this on board. (certainly in my LA)

However, although the specific activities in the book are adult led, it does also acknowledge the listening and talking about sounds that you do all the time and the importance of a language rich environment.

 

Im not sure that the assessment sheet you have been given is necessary ...do you have a choice about this? I think if you look around,there is probably something better, perhaps other members have already got something they are using?

[Guest]

That's pretty much the way I saw it Mundia. I think it's the sheet that's the problem. I don't know how optional it will be for the children who will be going to that school. We are in the process of starting a cluster group for transition into school, but unfortunately this school didn't make the first one.

 

The section on assessment in the document itself isn't nearly so formal. I'm going to run it by our Curriculum Advisor [teacher] before doing anything. I'm curious to know what experiences other nurseries/preschools are having. I wouldn't even have a copy of Letters & Sounds if I hadn't known I needed to order one - the website says the LEAs were supposed to have distributed them in the summer!

[Inge]

Our LA gave us training and the letters and sounds folder last July, they also gave us a lot of resources (Lola and book, beat baby and book, rap and story CDs.) to use to help with us including it in our day to day routine.

 

we are encouraged to read, listen and generally have a language rich environment rather than lots of focus activities and include lots of music, raps, stories which is what most of us do anyway. Lots came from the training which actually reduced some of what we have been doing..no phonics was one!

 

No one has asked us to assess the children or record this other than in our usual records on the children.

 

we are having an update and review later in the year with LEA so everyone can give input on any other resources found that have helped in this. An Audit may follow later.

 

would find it really difficult to do this for one school and not the others, we don't know which school children will be going to until Feb or March anyway!!

 

Inge

[Guest]

Exactly, Inge!

 

We have had just a resource called 'Jolly Jellyfish', one book per setting. We've had to do coloured photocopies ourselves so that each staff member could have one.

 

I bought Lola & Beat Baby myself as the budget wouldn't run to it! The authorities seem to prefer to issue with'rescources to create resources'.

[Guest]

I tried to order a copy of letters & Sounds from Teachernet only to be told I wasn't eligible! What's all that about then?

[Guest]

I don't know; I think I tried once before without success. This time I tried to get 5, same as schools get I think, but it reduced my order to 1 due to stock limitations. I can only suggest keep trying or ring them. You should be able to download it, but that doesn't give you the DVD of course.

[JacquieL]

Have a good read of your own copies of Letters and Sounds as there is lots of guidance on the implementaion of Phase One. If you can't get a copy it is availiable on line, just Google Prmary National Strategy and you will find it.

Although it says that there should be lots of teacher led activites in FS it doesn't mean that they are all group time or 'formal'. These can be part of your normal day and enhancements and CP, as well as your focus groups. I think if you looked at one weeks activities you do with the children, and married it to the document you would see just how much you are already doing.

Quote ' It is equally important to sustain and draw apon worthwhile, freely chosen activities that are provided for children in good early years settings and reception classes.'

It is about a language rich experience and good listening and speaking skills. Lots of games and rhymes and if your practice is good you will be doing it anyway. listening walk, lots of music activities, imitiating sounds, identifying sounds, rhythm and rhyme. Lots of talk and vocabulary development within their play.

There are some good suggestions in each aspect of Phase One for adult led games, and very easy to plan into the week.

Identify what you do and show your Prmary School that, as perhaps they don't actually realise what goes on within a nursery setting! Also you could draw attention to the summary of what when, as that shows that Phase One doesn't just stop when they leave Nursery but

continues alongside other phases.

[Susan]

I've just had, hand-delivered because of the postal strike, a sheet from which summarizes Letters & Sounds Phase 1 by Aspect with a column for 'Date'. e.g. 'I can play an instrument to match the sound an animal might make - Date.

 

Which instrument would that be then?

[hali]

[Guest]

Which instrument would that be then?

 

 

Well our didgeridoo sounds very much like a ............. MOOSE :wacko: , but has a child ever heard one??

 

I agree read the Letters and Sounds pack and decide as a setting how best you can impliment phase one for YOUR childrens particular learning styles, consider also staff knowledge re language / sound / text rich environment.

 

Peggy

[Susan]

Well our didgeridoo sounds very much like a ............. MOOSE :wacko: , but has a child ever heard one??

 

to be honest, I'm not sure I have!

[Guest]

I only heard about Letters and Sounds from this site last term and phoned and got one copy. They said they could only send one copy to a private address, so each member of staff then ordered their own copy at the start of the holiday. There has been no mention of any training yet!

We have started to use phase 1 with our pre-school children. I've been working with the 3 oldest children [going to school after Christmas] on some of the later aspects and they are very keen. I've also made a list of the activities that I feel we can do in small groups and we intend to do these 3 times a week. We started today with a listening walk. We'd all made large ears and walked around the grounds in the rain. We did get some strange stares from some passers-by!!!

 

Anita

[Guest]

, great love the idea of 'big ears' certainly helps the children get into context for their walk. I can even visualise it ( good imagination) :wacko:

 

Peggy

[Deb]

As a setting, we are very positive about Letters and Sounds as we can incorporate it in our daily routine. It's also good to know that we do not have to introduce phonics in pre-school. At our part 1 of our training, we were told this but also told we could introduce letter formation and jolly phonics if we had an able child. However, as a setting we feel this is wrong and will challenge this at the next training. We feel that the children should all be taught together in Reception, that there is no need for too formal learning too early before School and that we can provide lots of activities from phase 1 which will give children a broad and thorough grounding so they are ready for Reception. This is more inline with central Europe, except of course our children start formal schooling and therefore are introduce to letters before European children at 6 or 7, with good success it seems.

[Guest]

Well the tick chart ['cos that's what it is really] is with our Curriculum Support team now. I'm not at all sure that we shall use it but think that might affect our relationship with this particular school which is a pity. If we get them involved in the local Transition Cluster that might help.

 

I have no problems at all with Letters & Sounds itself. Phase 1 contains some very good ideas. I would have liked training offered but a lot of things have been put on hold this year because of the amount of training needed for EYFS apparently.

 

Susan's comment about the instrument, humourous as it is, really sums up my concerns about the 'tick chart' but I think either I shall have to address that with the school, or ht eCurriculum Support team will! To me it seems to be going against what Letters and Sounds is about anyway.

[Helen]

The Letters and Sounds pack should be available to order through prolog 0845 6022260 - and the Primary National Strategy team will be enquiring about the fact that there is a limit on it.

 

The Phase 1 material should be underpinning ALL activities and it is likely to continue even when children have moved on to phases 2-6. In consultation with colleagues at PNS, the consensus is that there is no need for the tick list in relation to the activities that have been covered in pre-school. Observation and assessment relating to the EYFS should pick all of these up in the course of children’s time in a setting.. Passing on information relating to all areas of children’s learning and development will be the most important information for the reception teacher - not isolated information about one area of learning.

[Sue R]

Ooh, yes - the Ears!!

 

We made some for a listening activity which were so popular they are now displayed with the intention of being taken down to use when listening is proving too much of a challenge for some children!

 

Sue

[Susan]

Weightman your tick list or whatever it may be called, concerns me too.

[Guest]

I'd scan it and attach to show you, but I don't want to upset relationships with the school which are basically good. It's described as 'progression of skills' and has 2 columns for each aspect, the first says something like 'I can copy a body sound' and the second has the date. There are 60 of these statements across Phase 1. That, to me, is a ticklist. I've just been reading 'Creating the Picture'Ref 00283-2007DWO-EN-01 downloadable from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk which states on page 20:

 

'Abandon recording practices that are now obslete in meeting current requirements for assessing and capturing children's achievements, for example, thise that rely on one-off assessments or tick lists.'

 

That's my concern and i hope the above gives anyone else in a similar position the rationale and confidence to stand up for what they believe in!

[Guest]

Hi. Im so glad i found this strand. Its nice to know im not the only one to be confused wth new publications!! I have two questions, if any one can help me?

 

Some people have mentioned a Lola and beat baby. What is this?

 

I work in a nursery and have had no training on the letters and sounds document. I know to cover phase one but should i be working through it by doing one activity from aspect 1, through to aspect 7 then back to an activity from aspect 1, so not all of one aspect is covered together? Does this make sense? Does anybody have a phonics plan for phase 1 I could look at?

 

I recommend watching the DVD it comes with. Certainly for phase one there is some really good ideas. I made some big ears with the children too for our listening walk and they loved it, it was fun.

 

thanks

[Guest Wolfie]

Lola and Beat Baby are soft toy resources and linked publications sold by Lawrence Educational - you'll find out everything that you need to know about them on this website:

 

http://www.foundationstageresources.com/

 

They are widely used in pre-school settings to promote children's speaking and listening skills and would be ideal for use in Phase 1...honestly, I'm not on commission!!

[Guest]

I agree, they are very good.

 

Using the DVD is fine for those of us who can get hold of a copy, but if you're having to work from a download it's problematic. I hope that people who are in the same position as LJW are sent one soon!

[Guest]

Hi i dont know if you have looked on the tes website there is an outline for the whole of phase 1 there in the resource bank

 

Some people have mentioned a Lola and beat baby. What is this?

 

I work in a nursery and have had no training on the letters and sounds document. I know to cover phase one but should i be working through it by doing one activity from aspect 1, through to aspect 7 then back to an activity from aspect 1, so not all of one aspect is covered together? Does this make sense? Does anybody have a phonics plan for phase 1 I could look at?

 

I recommend watching the DVD it comes with. Certainly for phase one there is some really good ideas. I made some big ears with the children too for our listening walk and they loved it, it was fun.

 

thanks