Parents go back to school to learn phonics!

Teachers at Widey Court

Primary School recently introduced a new scheme to help children learn to read and write when they start school –and their parents are joining in!

The ELS phonics scheme helps children to read sounds which may be made up of one or more letters, and using their ‘robot arms’ to help them, build those sounds back into words.

So far, the scheme is proving really successful and children who first started school in September 2022 are already a term ahead of where teachers expect them to be with their reading and writing.

Head of Early Years at Widey Court, Ellie Dingley, realised that parents benefit from learning more about early reading is taught and why the children use their ‘robot arms’ to sound out words, so she decided to invite families in to see phonics teaching in action.

She said: “We teach phonics first thing in the morning when children are really fresh and focussed for learning, before we start our play-based activities. It’s amazing how quickly they are making progress.

“They already understand complicated vocabulary, like

‘digraph’ and ‘trigraph’, which is when a sound is made up of two or three letters, and they can read and recognise words like ‘adder’ and ‘dinosaur’.

“We wanted parents to feel confident supporting their children to read at home, so we’ve been running a series of workshops, where they can come in and see what we’re doing and how their children learn. So far, it’s going really well: the children and their parents are loving it.”

Sam, whose daughter, Emily, started school in September, said: “It’s really different from when I was at school and I was surprised at how much Emily can do at this age. She loves the phonics lessons and loves learning. It’s amazing how they are all so engaged, sitting quietly and listening so well.”

Donna, whose son Rupert is in the same class as Emily, agreed, saying: “It’s been great coming into school to see how the children are learning to read.

I now understand what the robot arms are all about and I feel really involved in Rupert’s school life.”

Widey Court is part of the Connect Academy Trust group of schools in Plymouth and Torbay. The new scheme was chosen by the Early Years leads who researched the best fit for their schools. As well as inviting parents back into the classroom, they’re also demonstrating the new scheme to teachers and teaching assistants across all other year groups throughout the school.

Headteacher Shaun Nicholls, is pleased with how staff and pupils are benefitting from the package. He said: “It’s been a big investment and we’ve spent a lot of money on new books to support the phonics scheme, but being able to read and write unlocks learning, so it really pays dividends for children’s future hopes and dreams.”