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To further support your child with decoding and blending sounds at home.

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Welcome to Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS).

ELS is a synthetic phonics programme which some schools use to help children learn to read in Reception and Key Stage 1 (Primary 1 to 3). If you've heard the term ELS used by teachers at your child's school, the chances are they are using ELS to help your little one as they learn to read.

Here you can find more information on what ELS is and how you can support your child at home.

What is Synthetic Phonics?

Synthetic phonics is a way of teaching children to read. It teaches children how sounds are represented by written letters. Children are taught to read words by blending these sounds together to make words.

For example, they will be taught that the letters 'm-a-t' blend together to make 'mat'. A synthetic phonics programme, such as ELS, is a structure for teaching these sounds in a certain order to build up children's learning gradually. It is used daily during Reception and Year 1 to teach all the sounds in the English language.

How is ELS taught in schools?

With ELS, there is a daily phonics lesson where the teacher teaches a new sound, or reviews sounds learned earlier in the week. This is shown to the class on the whiteboard.

Children learn the letters that represent the sounds. They are then asked to read words and sentences with the new sounds in. Children will also practise writing the letters that represent the sounds.

What order are the sounds taught in?

New sounds are taught each day, with some review days and weeks to help children practise what they've learned. Click below to reveal the sounds your child will learn in ELS.

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Essential Letters and Sounds - Oxford Owl

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Welcome to Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS). ELS is a synthetic phonics programme which some schools use to help children learn to read in Reception and Key Stage 1 (Primary 1 to 3). If you've heard the term ELS used by teachers at your child's school, the chances are they are using ELS to help your little one as they learn to read.

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Link to Phonics Decodable Books and Lesson Resources

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Discover expert advice, educational resources and free eBooks to support children's learning at primary school and at home, from Oxford University Press.

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ELS website for Phonics Scheme, Resources and Progression Documents

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L Rimmer, Deputy Head Teacher Edlesborough Primary School

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Share what you are reading with your class

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The Reader Teacher | Children's Books | Reads, Reviews & Recommendations

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The Reader Teacher shares the best reads, reviews and recommendations for children, teachers, schools and parents to choose from.

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Reading For Pleasure - Reading for Pleasure

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We aim to support a vibrant professional community of teachers, student teachers, librarians, teaching assistants and literacy coordinators.

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Games and resources for practising Phonics.

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Adobe have blocked Flash Player from running. We have managed to get some Flash content working on Topmarks, but unfortunately many Flash resources no longer work and have been removed.

Phase 2 Phonics

The 16 Learner Guides support children learning Phase 2 of the Letters and Sounds phonics programme. The fun videos help children to see letter sounds in words. It supports correct letter formation too.

Phonics Songs

Catchy animated phonics songs for both revising and teaching letter-sounds from Teaching Your Monster to Read.

Phase 3 Phonics

Twenty-seven short videos to support Phase 3 phonics from the Letters and Sounds programme.

Phonics Bloom

Phonics Bloom create interactive online phonics games to help teach children the relationship between letters and sounds and develop the skills needed to read and write.

Forest Phonics

Forest Phonics is a spelling game where you can select the phonemes you want to focus on.

Focus on Phonics

Are you baffled by what 'phonics' means? Here are frequently asked questions with answers which can help you to understand what they are and how they are used to help your child to learn to read. You can listen to the hear the sounds the letters make too.

ReadwithPhonics.com

A phonics resource which is totally free for schools and for an unlimited amount of users. This schools version has all the sounds unlocked so teachers can pick and choose each sound depending on which sound you are working on.

Spooky Sounds

Children will love this game where they need to identify the phonemes which match sounds. This game is linked to the Letters and Sounds programme.

Guided Reading and Reading Games with Roy the Zebra

A wonderful guided reading story with accompanying printable worksheets and guided reading discussion sheets. There are 80 interactive literacy games, stories and songs for use in school or at home. Well worth a look!

Short Vowel Word Machines

Can you read the three letter (CVC) words on these animated word machines?

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Adobe have blocked Flash Player from running. We have managed to get some Flash content working on Topmarks, but unfortunately many Flash resources no longer work and have been removed. Phase 2 Phonics The 16 Learner Guides support children learning Phase 2 of the Letters and Sounds phonics programme.

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Phonics games and teaching ideas.

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A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources to help children to learn to hear phonemes, recognise graphemes and develop the blending and segmenting skills that are vital for learning to read and spell.

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Phonics reading resources.

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I remember when I first thought of the idea of creating 'the ultimate learn to read resource for the classroom', other teachers thought I was crazy! "Nice idea Soph, but leave that to the experts..." That really bugged me though, we are the experts! We are the ones using these resources day in, day out in our classrooms, we know how the classroom dynamic works, what resources our students like to use, we should be the ones designing and making them...

And so I set about dreaming up the perfect learn to read resource...

Sophie launching the Read with Phonics App

So what does the worlds best learn to read resource look like?

Step one was to choose the best method of teaching children to read, one that made learning to read as simple and easy as possible. This was an obvious choice, phonics. Like many of you, I learnt to read using sight words, i.e. constant repetition of the same words over and over again until you just, remember it. Phonics however teaches sounds, it is a code, that once understood allows you to read 95% of the English language. There are just 44 sounds in the English language for students to learn...

Next up I wanted to make learning fun. Children love games and I am constantly trying to make my lessons fun as I see the impact that it has. There is lots of new science behind 'gamification' these days which is all very interesting, but it doesn't take a scientist to work out that if you enjoy doing something, you're going to spend more time doing it. Therefore, the more you enjoy reading, the more time you will spend reading and the better you will get at it.

So I set about designing a series of games to teach each of the sounds. Initially children are taught the sound, then the letter or 'shape' that sound makes. Next up children are required to put this new sound they have learnt into different words and eventually are asked to read words with that sound in and match it to a picture to develop an understanding of what that word means. It is a simple structure but this is the foundation of every phonics lesson I teach, so I know it works!

I also found a frustration with traditional phonics resources that it was impossible to see which students are struggling on which sounds. I wanted a way to record all of the progress students were making and to display it in a way that made teachers lives easier and crucially more efficient. If there is one thing I know, it's that teachers do not have much 'spare time'!

I also knew that not all teachers teach the same, in the same way not all students learn the same. And so I knew we needed to be available for teachers on a variety platforms, both online and in app stores. To help us fit into their classrooms and their style of teaching.

Sophie worked on Read with Phonics in the evenings while still working full time as a teacher

The making of...

This was the fun part! Through friends I managed to find a development company, Lupimedia, that would start the first batch of work in the form of a loan. (A massive thank you to James and all the Lupi team for sharing our vision and for joining us on this journey...) Off the back of these 3 months of work, we secured a Virgin Start Up loan from the Government and Virgin Group to complete the development.

Sophie signing her loan agreement to start development work on Read with Phonics

Next up was to actually design everything, which I loved! From choosing colours, fonts, characters and images for each word, website design, layout and how it would actually work in the classroom. It was a huge amount of work with some very late nights, but it was a lot of fun!

In order to save money I am also 'the voice' of Read with Phonics and so everything you hear is me! It meant numerous trips to a recording studio to record all the words, sounds, game introductions and more. Recording 1,000's of words and trying to sound upbeat for each one was not easy, thank you Jon for bearing with me!

Sophie in the studio recording all the sounds that you hear on ReadwithPhonics.com

What if it didn't work?!

This was the hard part, we had run out of our initial money very quickly and I was still working full time which made it hard to put all my energy into both jobs. We launched quietly (more through being forced than by choice!). We got into a few schools and homes and carried out some testing on children to see if it actually worked...

It was the moment of truth, what if all this work, effort (and money!) would come to nothing?! What if no-one liked it?!

Sophie writing to the first 100 schools who signed up to say thank you!

I remember our first launch into the app stores was a disaster. Firstly we got told on numerous occasions by Apple that our app was too complicated to understand, it wasn't 'intuitive'. This was a kick in the teeth considering that is exactly what we were designed to be!

So back to the drawing board on that one... In the Google Play Store we also had emails from 7 of the first 10 people that downloaded it, 70% had problems. It wasn't a strong start!

After the initial launch we then spent 6 months chatting to users, carrying out more research to refine the apps, the website and our whole offering. By now we were getting some amazing feedback, it was actually working and our user base was growing. We were speaking to investors about how we could get funding to improve and develop Read with Phonics further, which meant we had to make business plans, make 'projections' and talk about how we were going to 'monetise'.

As you can see I have learnt an amazing amount already and there is still a long road ahead of us, which is hugely exciting!

Please feel free to share this page with fellow teacher/parent friends who may find our website useful. Be sure to get in touch with me if you have any feedback, advice, helps, hint or tips!

Sophie

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Our Story | ReadwithPhonics - Learn to Read with Phonics

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Hello, my name is Sophie, I am a teacher and also the founder of Read with Phonics. I remember when I first thought of the idea of creating 'the ultimate learn to read resource for the classroom', other teachers thought I was crazy! "Nice idea Soph, but leave that to the experts..."

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Phonics games.

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Phonics Bloom create interactive online phonics games to help teach children the relationship between letters and sounds and develop the skills needed to read and write. All our resources are designed by an experienced team of teachers and parents.

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Phonics Games for the Classroom and Home - Phonics Bloom

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Play a range of online phonics games, helping teach children the relationship between letters and sounds and develop the skills needed to read and write.

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Phonics games, activities and videos.

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Watch as the letters of the alphabet tell stories and make words using phonics. Play the learning game, watch clips and print colouring pages.

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Handwriting games, practise worksheets and animations.

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Reading and writing resources (visual literacy).

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Welcome to The Literacy Shed - the home of visual literacy. Here at Literacy Shed we aim to provide teachers with high quality films and animations that can be used in the primary classroom to enhance the teaching of reading and writing. All of the films on the site we think are suitable for primary aged children although some films may not be suitable for younger children. We urge that teachers watch any films before showing them to children.

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A website for teachers filled with ideas for literacy teaching using visual resources such as film, animation, photographs and picture books.

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Spelling planning resources, challenges, games and activities.

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Teachers

Spelling Shed is made by teachers, for teachers and was developed in the founder's classroom. We have built a suite of tools to enable teachers and schools to manage pupils' data, including reporting on assessments. Spelling Shed tracks student game plays along with their responses. Teachers can monitor weekly activity in order to advance or remediate as needed.

Our platform enables learning to happen anywhere and everywhere giving educators the peace of mind that pupils can learn and get practice unhindered.

Our administration tools also allow groups of schools to manage school data centrally.

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Proudly powered by EdShed, Spelling Shed includes a whole-school spelling scheme, web & mobile games and a teacher hub with homework and data.

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BooksForTopics: Recommended children's books and booklists sorted by age or topic

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BooksForTopics help millions of users each year find recommended children's books, including booklists for primary curriculum subjects, the best new children's books, and recommendations of the best books by age or year group.

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Collection of fiction/non-fiction/poetry books with free extracts (free sign-up required).

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Collections

The Best Children's Box Sets - Great Gift Ideas for Young Readers this Christmas

Knowing how challenging it can be to encourage some children to read, we know the deep joy that comes with them finding a character or a story that really speaks to them, that they grow to love, and they want more, more, more of.

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Buy a Book. Support a School. Make a Difference | LoveReading4Kids UK

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LoveReading4Kids exists because reading matters, and books change lives. Support local schools through the LoveReading4Kids bookshop. 10% off RRPs, and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice. Sharing book love with children's book reviews and book recommendations right across the ages, from toddlers to teens.

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Collections of images and questions to teach reading skills.

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Once Upon a Picture - Images to Inspire - Teaching Resources

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Once Upon a Picture - Images to Inspire - Teaching Resources

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Ebooks, Comprehension and Phonics resources.

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Your whole school reading solution for 3-11 year olds

The Bug Club family is so much more than just a reading programme. It captures children's imagination and nurtures lifelong readers, and it's proven to work. It's your whole-school solution for all your reading needs, whatever they might be.

Explore all our Bug Club programmes in our interactive brochure or explore the series links below to find out more.

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The Bug Club family is so much more than just a reading programme. It captures children's imagination and nurtures lifelong readers, and it's proven to work. It's your whole-school solution for all your reading needs, whatever they might be.

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Curriculum-based comprehension activities for KS2.

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Reading games and activities for all year groups.

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Learning to Read for Kids | Learn to Read with Phonics | Free Trial

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Reading Eggs is the online reading program that helps children learn to read. Hundreds of online reading lessons, phonics games and books for ages 2–13. Start your free trial!

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A writing/reading resource a day (great for starter activities!)

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Instead of groans at the beginning of a writing lesson, your class were excited to pick up their pencils and you were the teacher that sparked their imaginations!

Even your most reluctant writers are generating adventurous vocabulary, perfecting punctuation and filling the page with no signs of stopping!

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Engage even your most reluctant writers with inspiring images, fun writing prompts and daily short burst writing activities that improve writing stamina.

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Digital Library with hundreds of books to read online (free sign-up required).

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Parents, get 30 days free! Educators, get it free

How to get your kids reading & loving it!

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Parents, get 30 days free! Educators, get it free How to get your kids reading & loving it! MORE FEATURES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Personalize their daily reading. Daily age- and level-appropriate recommendations customized to their interests. Track progress. See what books your kid likes, time spent reading and more.

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Reading and Writing resources - lots of good poetry resources.

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We help schools to teach literacy in the most effective way. Our training and resources are all based on credible research and on the principles of effective continuing professional development. Teachers and schools who learn from our work do so in order to raise the achievement and attainment of their children in literacy in an effective and sustainable way. As part of our charitable purpose, in order to enable all schools to benefit from our work we create a number of free resources.
We create and share hundreds of teaching resources for EYFS to Key Stage 3. Simply click on a box to explore...

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We help schools to teach literacy in the most effective way. Our training and resources are all based on credible research and on the principles of effective continuing professional development. Teachers and schools who learn from our work do so in order to raise the achievement and attainment of their children in literacy in an effective and sustainable way.

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Quick comprehension activities for KS2.

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house? Why did we have to move and leave all of my

friends behind? They don't understand, it's just not fair!

Who cares if it's, "Big and full of history?"

I'd read all about priest holes, secret rooms, books that

you move and a door opens, but they were all in ancient

houses and spy films, full of intrigue, mystery and

adventure. So when I was exploring the 'new' house,

pushed gently on the patterned wall and it opened up...

my heart started fluttering.

I just had to see inside.

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A Starter for Ten - Story Writing Inspiration.

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house? Why did we have to move and leave all of my friends behind? They don't understand, it's just not fair! Who cares if it's, "Big and full of history?" I'd read all about priest holes, secret rooms, books that you move and a door opens, but they were all in ancient houses and spy films, full of intrigue, mystery and adventure.