It’s been a busy few weeks for the teacher training team in the Western Region, who have just successfully completed the delivery of the second Intensive Training Workshop (ITW2) to all of the teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service officers.

Prior to the workshop, the new team of trainers prepared for their delivery during a four day trainer planning workshop. The trainers were introduced to the ITW2 workshop content and also had time to practice their presentation skills. Having the opportunity to practice their delivery as a team provided the trainers with a lot of confidence prior to delivering the actual workshop to the teachers.

During the four-day ITW2 workshop the teachers learnt about the new classroom theme that they will be using over the next six weeks, All About Me, with the other key focus being literacy. Literacy skills are integrated into all areas of the classroom, whether it be whilst the children are enjoying outside activities or in their big circle time at the start of the day.

The teachers discussed ways in which they can help to develop children’s vocabulary and the importance of encouraging child-to-child talk in the classroom as a way to develop their vocabulary and communication skills.

The teachers were also introduced to the KG1 and KG2 phonics programme. The participants had a great time learning the songs and actions for the letters of the alphabet, which helps the children to learn the different sounds of each letter. The teachers learnt how the phonics programme progresses over the two years that the children spend in kindergarten, with them learning how to read three letter words and develop their writing skills by the end of KG2.

The KG1 teachers learnt about the auditory discrimination games and activities that the KG1 pupils will do during their phonics session. These games help children to discriminate sounds, providing them with a strong foundation with which to continue in KG2 when they begin to learn the sounds of the alphabet and to read. To help the children to read in KG2 the teachers use blending and segmenting, which the teachers really enjoyed learning to do.

To end the workshop, the teachers got creative and began to prepare some teaching and learning materials that they will use to deliver the All About Me theme. There was great participation from all of the teachers throughout the four days and the Sabre team are looking forward to visiting the classrooms over the coming weeks to see how they are getting on. Watch this space for updates from the classrooms soon!