Is your child's school using Lesley Clarke's Letters and Sounds phonics programme to teach your child to read and write? If so...
Discover how you can make it easier for your child to make a great start on their journey to becoming a good reader and writer.
You can achieve this by understanding the phonics knowledge & skills your child will be learning during their first 2 years at school & some quick/simple ways you can support them to practise & develop these at home/when out and about with your child.
This package of pre-recorded workshops for Reception & Y1 parents/carers provides you with everything you need to know from the beginning of Reception until at least the end of Y1 to make it easy for you to support your child's learning. The videos are broken into bite sized chunks, which you can access at any time over a 2 year period, so you can easily fit watching them around other commitments you have.
This workshop package gives you:
# the information your child's school simply doesn't have the time to share with you during a 1 hour curriculum meeting at school.
# an insight into how your child will be taught to read and write using phonics (this is a very different approach to the one used when you were at school).
# a clear understanding of the phonics knowledge and skills your child will be learning each term in Reception & Y1, so you can stay one step ahead of them and respond appropriately when your child talks about what they are learning at school.
# practical workshops you can join in with to help you feel more confident in suporting your child to develop the key knowledge & skills they need to be able to read and spell words.
# clarity on how to help your child sound out words for reading and break words up for spelling at each phase of the phonics programme.
# an understanding of the mistakes your child is likely to make at each stage in their phonics journey and how to respond to these.
# simple activities you can do with your child to support them in developing the key knowledge and skills. These will fit into your everyday routines at home/when out and about, with few/no resources and little time required.
# the opportunity to translate the information into your first language as you watch the workshops (using use you own IT/App) - something you wouldn't easily be able to do during a live information session at school.
What you'll get:
2 years of anytime access to the workshop videos. These consist of:
Reception:
7 workshops providing a total of 4 hours of support for you across the academic year. These are broken into a total of 24 shorter sections, averaging 10 mins each (with some being slightly longer and some slightly shorter).
Y1:
7 workshops providing a total of just over 3 hours of support for you across the academic year. These are broken into a total of 19 shorter sections, averaging 10 mins each (with some being slightly longer and some slightly shorter).
You will be provided with a guide to when in the year it is likely to be most beneficial for you to participate in each workshop, although do bear in mind that some children will progress at a faster/slower pace than that indicated, so you can adjust when you view each workshop based on your child's needs.
NB: The workshops are designed to support you in helping your child and are not for children to watch themselves.
Why do I need these workshops? Surely my child's school will provide me with all the information I need:
Your child's school will give you as much information as they can using the time and staffing available to them. This may be through an in person/online meeting early in the academic year or handouts they send home during the year. However, they simply do not have the time to provide you with everything you really need in order to support your child with reading and writing in the most effective way.
When you attend a single phonics workshop at the beginning of the school year, it's like a beginner trying to learn a year's worth of pilates exercises in their very first lesson and trying to be able to correctly remember, use and help others with all those exercises by themselves for twelve months until they get their second lesson a year later. Probably not the most effective way to develop your knowledge, skills, understanding or confidence!
Information sheets you are given during the year can be very helpful, but as I teacher I was conscious that those would never be as clear for a parent/carer as if they’d had someone to teach/show them practically.
Feedback has shown the transformative power that live/pre-recorded workshop attendance can have on you as a parents/carer.
- You become less scared of phonics:
- You feel more confident in supporting your child (this is a very common theme in the feedback comments):
- You learn things you may not have realised you needed to know.
- You realise phonics is not as straightforward as you had assumed.
- You learn how to pronounce sounds correctly with your child (this helps to avoid errors when reading & spelling words).
- You enjoy learning about phonics and want to learn more.
- You realise that phonics can be fun!
Parents/carers also value the following:
- Having the unique opportunity to learn at first hand from a phonics expert.
- The practical and engaging nature of the workshops (you don’t just sit and watch a powerpoint presentation!).
- The handouts containing the information you may need to refer to after each workshop.
- Knowing how to use the same approach that is being used in your child’s school.
- The support the workshops provide if English is not your first language.
‘If you would like your phonics knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence transformed in the same way as it was for those who provided the feedback above, so you can effectively support your child at home, this workshop package is for you.
Surely my child's school will teach them all the phonics they need, so why do I need to know/understand it myself?
Research shows high quality involvement of parents/carers in their child’s learning can result in an additional 4-5 months of progress in one year, but many parents/carers were taught phonics in a different way, so don't know or understand how it is taught now.
So the question is… how can you confidently and effectively support your child when engaged in phonics, reading and writing activities at home without fully understanding how your child is being taught to read and write using phonics at school?
When you understand how and why your child is being taught phonics and feel confident you know how to help them, you are more likely to do so and do so in a way that is consistent with the school approach. This is the high quality involvement that leads to improved outcomes for children.
No-one wants to see their child struggling with reading or spelling, but some children need more practice to develop the phonics knowledge and skills that will enable them to read and spell words. If your child is one of them, their school is likely to be providing them with additional teaching/support at school. However, there are only so many hours in the day and staff time available to provide this extra help. If you can learn what to do to help your child to progress and support them regularly with this, they will make more rapid progress
Don’t just take my word for it…..
This is what parents/carers who have used the workshop package this year OR who previously attended the live workshops with the same content had to say.
'Lesley offers fantastic and insightful support for parents looking to understand the phonics journey that their child is on. Her tips and techniques have been invaluable to us, so that we can ensure that when we read with our daughter we are continuing to help her build on her reading and spelling skills in the same way she is learning in the classroom. We cannot recommend her workshops enough.' Roxanna - Reception parent West London
'Fantastic... I don't feel so scared of phonics now.... definitely could have done with you years ago.'
'I realised I was using the wrong sounds, so I'm glad I now know how to do it.'
'That was really useful. I wish we'd had this before…. Cleared up a lot of it for me.'
'Helps me understand some of the things my daughter comes home doing/saying - makes a lot more sense!'
How much will this cost?
You will get all the information you need to help your child master the basics of phonics during their first 2 years of school for just £2.50 per month, which is less than buying a single cup of coffee out. As you will get access to all the workshops from the outset, you will need to make a full upfront payment of £60.
Bonus:
As the workshops are pre-recorded, I am mindful that questions may arise for some of you in terms of understanding aspects of the content or how to deal with a specific mistake you have observed your child making when reading/spelling.
You may feel you don't want to bother school staff with these questions (we all know how busy they are). If you don't do pick up/drop off at school, you are reliant on written communications, but it can be difficult for staff to answer some questions in writing - a spoken reply may be easier for you to understand, but that isn't an option.
To help with this, as an added bonus, I will be answering parent/carer questions once a term. I will send you an email at this time asking for any questions you may have. I will then answer these in short video clips over time, which will be added to an FAQ section of the package for all parents/carers to access.
NB: I will not be answering any questions about your child’s progress or activities your child's school has asked you to do at home - these are questions that you need to ask your child's teacher.