Phonics and Early Reading
What is Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS)?
ELS stands for ‘Essential Letters and Sounds‘. In distilling Letters and Sounds to it’s purest form, to ensure every phonics lesson has the highest quality teaching possible, ELS have created an SSP where only the essential elements are used. ELS was developed by teachers, for teachers with teaching in mind with the aime to ensure that every child can read well, quickly. In pursuit of this aim, ELS ensures that there is minimal opportunity for cognitive overload and a robust structure in place for the teaching of phonics. This gives the children the opportunity to not only practice but to overlearn, ensuring that they are all accessing learning.
The principles of ELS are based upon:
- The delivery of whole-class, high-quality first teaching with well-structured daily lessons.
- The use of consistent terminology by teachers, children and parents.
- The use of consistent resources that support effective teaching.
- Repetition and reinforcement of learning
- Regular and manageable assessment to ensure that all children ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’
- The ‘E’ Model: Embed, Enact, Enable, Execute, Evaluate and Evolve
