Last week, student teachers from Holy Child College of Education attended their 2^nd Intensive Training Workshop. The 4 day workshop enabled the student teachers to understand the techniques used to help kindergarten pupils to acquire vocabulary and questioning skills and how and why we use phonics to teach reading.

A key message of the workshop was the importance of teaching listening skills in kindergarten class 1 so that children can listen and recognise different sounds. This is an important skill to develop in preparation for kindergarten class 2 where children will begin to learn how to read.

The Intensive Training Workshops are very interactive and participatory, and give the students an opportunity to practice teaching a phonics lesson for both kindergarten 1 and kindergarten 2.

The workshop ended with reflection session which is a great way to gauge how the students have absorbed the learning and to continue to improve and adapt the programme to ensure the best outcomes.