TTS, leading educational developer and supplier, will be pre-launching a new phonics programme at the 2016 Education Show. The programme is a holistic, whole class approach to learning to read that is sure to encourage a lifelong love of books. The new programme, StoryTime Phonics uses ‘real’ books to teach phonics and will give children a love of reading from an early age, as opposed to reading books scripted for phonic decoding. Each book focuses on a different sound and there are engaging activities, games and ideas developed around each book and sound to ensure children have a full understanding of the sound in context, as well as loving the stories they hear.
Jane Attewell, a Year 1 teacher from St. Mary’s Primary said “StoryTime Phonics provides concrete experiences with memorable stories. Children connect with the characters, and the learning stays with them.”
Developed by former Leading English teacher and Local Authority Consultant, Michelle Larbey, the programme supports independent home reading and class based guided reading groups. In class, teachers support children with practical hands on experiences and activities relating to the stories to help children store the grapheme phoneme correspondences, linking them to characters from the related stories and storing them in their long term memories.
The programme comprises of 60 different books which represent all the sounds in the English Language as well as extensive teacher materials on how to use the books effectively. These include both print and digital materials. Rachel Snape, Head teacher of the outstanding National Teaching School, The Spinney Primary School, Cambridge said:
“We are currently working with the amazing Phonic Fairy, AKA Literacy Consultant Michelle Larbey, on a brilliant phonics resource that teaches phonics systematically using REAL books to contextualize the phonemes. It’s the best of all worlds! I have already had feedback from one of the parents in EYFS (who also happens to be a governor) that her daughter is LOVING learning phonics this year through this engaging and energizing approach! Michelle’s approach is just so brilliant, child friendly and JOYFUL – and the children make great progress. It is also deeply rooted in research from Professor Goswami and Wyse (A review of the teaching of early reading in England commissioned by the UK Government) which in summary recommends systematic teaching of phonics to be the preferred approach within a contextualised rich learning content for young learners.
The Phonic Fairy, Michelle Larbey will be appearing at the Education Show and will be hosting fun and interactive sessions to launch the StoryTime Phonic resource. The sessions will be running on the TTS stand E28-F29 each day at the following times Thursday and Friday: 10:00am, 11:30am, 1:00pm and 2:00pm and on Saturday at 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm; 3:30pm. These sessions will be memorable, motivating and fast paced making it a must see at the 2016 Education show.
Press Launch
Press are invited to the TTS stand E28-F29 on Thursday 17th March at 3.30pm where Michelle Larbey aka the Phonic Fairy will deliver an interactive and fun session on the new programme. Fizz will be served at this time and a free gift will be given to all attendees.
Notes to editors:
About the supplier – TTS Group
TTS has 30 years’ experience in developing, manufacturing and supplying high quality educational resources suitable for Early Years right through to KS3 to schools and parents across the UK and worldwide. Each year TTS has more than 1,000 conversations with teachers and practitioners, creating over 500 teacher ideas in-house to ensure it remains close to its customers and market.
About the author – Michelle Larbey
Michelle Larbey is a former Leading English teacher and Local Authority Consultant who now spends her time as a freelance consultant and Author. Having spent years in the classroom, culminating in an Assistant Head and English Subject leader role, Michelle moved into consultancy. This move was triggered by her work on the introduction of ‘Talk for Writing’, which saw her case study published by the National Strategies and which she later presented nationally.
Starting her consultancy work with the Gloucestershire Local Authority and later Cambridgeshire, Michelle moved to be a freelance consultant and writer. Michelle also works part-time for Cambridge University in the Faculty of Education supporting PGCE trainees in the highest standards of research and teacher training.
For further information, please visit: www.tts-group.co.uk/storytime-phonics
Press enquiries
Emma Caudwell
07740 981375
ecaudwell@tts-group.co.uk
