FAQ
How does the new material differ from PwS and PiPs?
What is covered in each Phase?
Is there guidance on teaching High Frequency Words?
I work in a school. When can I get a copy?
I work in a Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) setting, how can I get a copy?
Will there be any training on these materials?
When should I start to use the new materials?
Does this resource need to replace our current phonic programme?
Is there guidance on vulnerable children?
What is in the new document?
The new document comprises a folder with 2 booklets, a poster and a DVD. The first booklet includes Notes of Guidance for Practitioners and Teachers. These notes form an introduction to Letters and Sounds and are intended to help practitioners and teachers use the programme effectively. Guidance on the principles of the Six-phase Teaching Programme is included, together with some frequently asked questions.
The second booklet is the Six-phase Teaching Programme. There are six incremental phases. Phase One concentrates on activities to promote speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending and segmenting. Phases Two to Six focus on high quality phonic work, providing advice and activities to help practitioners and teachers ensure that by the end of Key Stage 1 children develop fluent word reading skills and have good foundations in spelling.
The new materials build upon the core document Guidance for practitioners and teachers on progression and pace in the teaching of phonics, in: The Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics: core position papers underpinning the renewal of guidance for teaching literacy and mathematics (Ref: 03855-2006BKT-EN).
The poster provides a visual summary of the principles of high quality phonic work for teachers, practitioners, leaders and managers in schools and settings.
The DVD shows exemplar sessions for each phase with short clips to demonstrate effective practice. The DVD does not illustrate all the activities described in the booklet and does not show the teaching sequences in full.
How does the new material differ from PWS and PiPs?
The new materials build on the approaches, games and activities from PiPs and PwS and reflect the principles of high quality phonic teaching as described in the Rose Review. Steps 1–7 in PiPs and PwS have been replaced by six phonic phases. The introduction of grapheme–phoneme correspondences begins in Phase Two as described in the core document Guidance for practitioners and teachers on progression and pace in the teaching of phonics published in 2006.
What is covered in each Phase?
Phase One has been expanded and exemplified to include seven aspects of phonological awareness. Within each of these aspects there are three strands; tuning into sounds, listening and remembering sounds and talking about sounds. Phase One complements a broad and rich language curriculum. There is an emphasis on oral work, developing children’s language structures, vocabulary and phonological awareness. Within this phase children will also begin to develop the skills to blend and segment orally. Phase One type activities should continue well beyond the introduction of Phase Two.
Phases Two to Six introduce the grapheme–phoneme correspondences in a systematic and progressive way. The booklet sets out suggestions of the letter sequences and timescales for each phase. Introduction of grapheme–phoneme (letter-sound) correspondences begins at Phase Two and this is the point at which a programme of systematic phonic work should begin. By the end of Phase Three children should know one grapheme for all the phonemes in spoken English; at Phase Four they should be able to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants; at Phase Five, children begin to recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes and spelling the phonemes they have been taught; and at Phase Six they develop skill and automaticity in reading and spelling.
Is there guidance on teaching High Frequency Words?
Many high-frequency words are entirely regular, and the skills of blending and segmenting will enable children to decode and encode them. Even high-frequency words containing irregularities usually have some regular grapheme-phoneme correspondences. There is specific guidance on dealing with both types of high-frequency words.
I work in a school. When can I get a copy?
Five copies have been sent directly to all primary, infant and junior schools as well as middle deemed primary schools. Further copies can be ordered through Prolog from June 2007 onwards.
Order number: 00281-2007FLR-EN
Tel: 0845 60 222 60
Fax 0845 60 333 60
Email: dcsf@prolog.uk.com
The materials are now also available to download on the CLLD website.
I work in a Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) setting, how can I get a copy?
Your Local Authority will be responsible for ordering and distributing copies of the new materials. You will need to contact your local Early Years Advisory Service for details of how they will be arranging distribution. Later in the summer term, copies will be available on call off from Prolog (reference as above).
Will there be any training on these materials?
Training materials are being developed for practitioners working with children at Phase One. These will be available to Local Authorities from the autumn term. Contact your Early Years Advisory Service for details of how they will be supporting settings in using this material. For schools there will be no national training programme as the material is sufficiently detailed to stand alone.. Local Authorities will be encouraged to support schools and settings in disseminating the new materials through ongoing training and briefings for Foundation Stage Co-ordinators and Literacy Subject Leaders.
When should I start to use the new materials?
First and foremost, Headteachers, leaders and managers need to make an informed decision to choose a phonic programme which best meets the needs of the children with whom they work.
The DCSF website includes an evaluation by publishers of commercial schemes against the criteria for high quality phonic teaching. Letters and Sounds meets these criteria.
For practitioners working with children in Phase One, you may wish to start using the materials straight away. You will need to consider carefully how they can be used to enhance current language and literacy provision.
For those children in Reception and Key Stage 1 implementation needs to be a whole school policy and agreed with literacy subject leaders and senior managers. Schools will need to decide if the new materials will be the core programme or if it will be aligned to existing phonic programmes/resources. Schools will also need to use their ongoing assessments and take into account children’s prior experience and attainment in deciding which phase most appropriately meets their needs. It is important that schools consider one of the main recommendations in the Rose Review which is ensuring fidelity to one programme. The new materials exemplify the phonic progression and objectives set out in the new Primary Framework for literacy. For schools implementing the new framework it would be beneficial to begin using the new materials alongside this.
Does this resource need to replace our current phonic programme?
The decision about which phonic programme to use rests with individual schools. The new materials meet the criteria for effective phonics teaching as recommended by the Rose Review. If schools use an alternative phonic programme/ resource, leadership teams will need to consider whether these meet the Rose Review criteria.
Is there guidance on vulnerable children?
The Primary National Strategy has produced additional sets of guidance on Communication Language and Literacy Development (CLLD) for vulnerable children, in the form of frequently asked questions. This guidance will be provided on the website in August 2007 and provides advice to teachers and practitioners working with children for whom English is an additional language and for children who have language and literacy difficulties.
