Last week saw a two day Training of Trainers workshop to prepare the training team to deliver the up-coming Intensive Training Workshop (ITW2) for student teachers from Holy Child College of Education.

A key focus of the training session was language as the foundation of literacy, which included phonics and emergent reading and writing skills.

One of the tools the Fast–track Transformational Teacher Training programme uses when teaching literacy is the alphabet frieze.

An alphabet frieze is the alphabet written out in upper and lower case with an image to represent each letter. This is a key element of providing a print rich environment in the classrooms.

In kindergarten year 1 the frieze is used to recognise the name and shapes of the letters and to help children listen to the sound of the letters.

In kindergarten year 2 the frieze is used to support phonics, by helping the children to begin to segment and blend sounds to form a word. The frieze also guides children in singing the ‘song of the sound’ for each letter!