DD's school moving from Letters and Sounds to Phono-Graphix - implications?

[LocalEditorBarnet]

DD did Letters and Sounds in nursery and reception, and for the first term of Year One; and she has just moved to Phono-graphix now.

Are there any teachers on this board that can explain the benefits of PG over L&S? DD's school explained that the PG scheme 'works better' and is more 'comprehensive'. I absolutely trust their judgement, but I'm the kind of person that likes to know the detail and rather than bothering the teachers with all my questions, I thought I'd ask here!

Thanks in advance for any info on helping DD cope with the transition (if indeed, she does need help) and links to any useful resources by trusted sources.

Phono-Graphix originated in the US. It was brought to the Uk in the 1990s and adopted by a number of schools. As far as I aware it had good results. UK programmes such as Sounds~Write, Sound Reading System and That Reading Thing (for teenagers & adults) are out of the same stable, so to speak.

It is based on the same principles as UK synthetic phonics programmes in that it teaches letter/sound correspondences, decoding and blending for reading (though they may call it 'segmenting') and segmenting (breaking words into their component sounds) for spelling.

The methodology might be slightly different from that of L & S but I wouldn't think it would cause much of a problem, especially as your DD probably already understands the principles of phonics.

Whether or not it is superior I couldn't say. It probably depends on the competence of the teacher as much as anything else.

That's really useful, thank you!

Does anyone else have thoughts?

If staff have been trained to deliver the programme as intended (and they do so) then I would expect to see an improvement in reading and spelling skills.

Ah mrz, interesting, thank you!

This system is also used by a lot of dyslexia specialist schools as it is an excellent approach to grasping phonics and blending sounds.

All this sounds really positive. I think I just needed a bit of reassurance that it would benefit and not hinder my DD's phonics learning. Thank you

Many schools use Letters & Sounds simply because it is free not because it is a particularly good programme