Does anyone use external providers to support phonics in their setting

[Guest]

Hi

 

I am a qualified teacher and last year I set up a local parent and child activity class to teach phonics through play.

 

The children who come to these weekly sessions are usually aged 3 and 4 and we explore multi-sensory activities and play active games all based around letters and sounds (and mapped to EYFS framework). The classes are going really well and the assessments we have carried out show kids are making great progress as well as having a blast so I'm finding it really rewarding.

 

What I'd really like some feedback on if possible is whether these sessions would be useful to deliver in preschools and nurseries. I'm thinking of adapting the programme to make it suitable to take place in these settings on a weekly basis but I'm not sure if this is something that would be well received.

 

Does anyone use external companies to come in and deliver phonics at their setting? Does it work well?

Also, if I did tailor our sessions to deliver in nurseries and preschools, would it work better charging the parents or the provider?

 

I have invested in so many great phonics resources and got some really creative lesson plans so I think this could make life easier for nursery and preschool staff, as well as engaging parents in the process too (as we supply weekly learn at home activity resources linked to the sound we cover) BUT I might be missing a HUGE drawback.....

 

Any feedback (positive or negative!) would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to spend lots of time and energy creating a service that isn't really wanted / practical to deliver!

 

Thank you so much in advance for your help

[Melba]

That sounds really interesting but I suppose the problem would be money and how much it cost. It would also be great if you did some training of staff.

[narnia]

yup..........how much??

[Stargrower]

Yes I agree with Melba. My first thoughts are it sounds fantastic but how much would it cost? We would try to cover the cost rather than charge parents as many of our parents can only just afford nursery fees, are on benefits etc. Also I wonder if parents would think that this is something we should be providing anyway, not charging extra for. Would training staff to carry out your sessions be more practical?

Finally, where are you? I'm guessing there is a limit to where you would be able to travel to each week!

[Guest]

Hi, thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

 

Yes, I agree, cost is usually the sticking point! To cover our teaching and resource costs we would need to charge £40 per session but if staff attended our phonics programme for a year I guess it would be like a very thorough phonics training programme as they would be learning through observation and picking up lots of great teaching ideas. I was speaking to a Nursery Manager at the weekend about this and she felt she could easily get ten kids to pay £4 per week on top of their nursery fees but I guess every nursery (and how price sensitive the parents are) will be different.

 

We are based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, so at the moment our little pool of teachers only extend within a 25 mile radius from there but hopefully if things work out we'll be able to grow beyond this. However, I like your idea about training staff to carry out our sessions, this could overcome the geographic barrier too. Perhaps if we compiled a nursery phonics package for nurseries to include staff training, our schemes of work, lesson plans, some of our lovely bespoke resources and rights to use the phonics illustrations we've commissioned, this would be a more practical idea.

 

If anyone has any thoughts on this as a potential idea it would be greatly appreciated....

 

THANK YOU

[Guest]

Plenty of people reading this post but no replies I'd really appreciate some input about this. I know most of you are not in my area but if you work in a nursery or preschool then I really value your opinion.....

[thumperrabbit]

I am in a committee run pre-school and would love to have something like this, particularly as almost all of our county training has disappeared.

I do think its a really good idea and think that support in other areas of learning not just phonics would be equally as good.

 

Sadly, here lies the problem with us and I'm sure with quite a few pre-schools, we just can't afford to pay for it

Good luck with it though :1b

[Guest]

If it was done in a setting you could not charge the funded children.

[Guest]

My parents would be able to pay £4 on top of their fees,

I wouldn't buy in a service like that as our letters and sound programme runs well, but good luck

[Guest]

Thank you for your comments guys, I appreciate you taking the time.

 

Thumperrabbit - money hey?! Why does it always get in the way? Thank you for your words of support though

 

Suer - when my daughter had a funded place at her preschool they sometimes asked if we wanted to pay extra for her to join in classes like music, most of us did, but I guess there needs to be interest from parents and staff for it to work. Glad to hear your letters and sounds programme is working well for you though

 

Do others agree? Would your parents be willing to pay for something like this? Would you find a programme like this helpful in your setting?

 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts....

[finleysmaid]

i think this is difficult for sessional care ...because children don't do all the days so some will miss out. Cost is a problem too...as said we only do 3 hour sessions(times two a day) so how can i charge for it? i have a family grouping of children from 2.5 up to 5 so you would need to be able to cope with that too. plus if you did one session you would have to do an afternoon also as i would want to offer to all.

To be honest i can see this might be more useful for full day care settings but you would need to offer something they cannot do themselves. I have never bought in teaching because i expect myself and my staff to be able to deliver the eyfs...after all thats our job!

[thumperrabbit]

Our parents this last academic year definitely wouldn't have paid for it, unless it was for an extension on their child's time spent with us.

We are in an affluent area, but they still don't like to pay anymore for extras within a session that in their eyes they've already paid for.

[Guest]

Cheers ladies, again, all useful feedback. I can see the barriers facing the delivery of this in preschools, and timings to ensure all kids would have access is something I hadn't considered so thank you for raising this. I guess if there were sufficient 2.5 -4.5 year olds in the setting (with parents who were prepared to pay) then this could be repeated in more than one session.

 

Yet again, the money issue seems problematic, it would be great to hear from a full day care nursery to find out if the same challenges would be present there. I guess if all the feedback is negative then I'll have to rethink my idea, but from reading some of the posts on this forum before posting my own message there seemed to be a lack of confidence amongst some EY staff delivering phonics, so I thought this kind of practical ongoing staff training from phonics specialists could also be useful to staff as well as fun for kids.

 

Yesterday, I added a page to my website http://phonicsfun.co.uk/nurseries-and-preschools/ to describe what we can offer in case any local nurseries and preschools were interested. I'll keep you posted as to whether I get any takers but in the meantime if you can spare a minute to take a look, any comments on the website page would also be gratefully received. Have I missed anything important? I think it might be too wordy, did you fall asleep reading it?!

 

You are all very kind to give me your feedback, whether it is good or bad, I really do appreciate it, thank you.

[sunnyday]

Hi AnnMarieF and welcome to the forum :1b

 

Did I spot a 'typo' on your site? 'fright from left to right'.........

 

Otherwise all very interesting, and no, 'I didn't fall asleep reading it'

 

I really don't think that it's an option that I could take up - reasons already mentioned - funding, children attending a mix of sessions, own confidence and ability to deliver 'Letters and Sounds' programme........

 

Wishing you every success :1b

[Guest]

Thank you sunnyday - thank you so much for pointing out the typo - tis' gone now! Rather unfortunate typo too, last thing we want to do is 'frighten' anyone! Glad to hear you managed to stay awake too, thank you for your support, it is much appreciated

[finleysmaid]

nice website...works well on laptop..haven't tried it on phone ipad etc

What about teaching sessions for pre-schools/nuseries for their staff cpd? this might be another string to your bow and might be something that we would be more able to access.

Do you only work in one area...not really sure when reading your info?

[Guest]

Thank you for your feedback finleysmaid. That is a really good idea, thank you.

 

Do you think just the training might appeal or do you think preschools/nurseries might be willing to pay for a little package of resources too? We've invested a great deal of time and money developing imaginative resources, fun illustrations and comprehensive lesson plans for the teaching of each sound. Although we are a small company based in Kent it would be lovely to see these ideas and resources being used in nurseries all over the place. I will give that some more thought....

 

Thanks again for taking the time to have a look at the website and give me your thoughts :1b