The Albion Foundation’s Footy Phonics intervention had a “positive impact” throughout the 2023/24 academic year according to Moorlands Primary School class teacher Davinder Singh.
The intervention, funded by the Premier League Charitable Fund, and developed in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, provides an active way for children to learn their phonics sounds with football-themed activities.
The six-week intervention has helped Abel, a year one pupil at Moorlands Primary School in West Bromwich, to find the fun in reading and writing.
“We have half-termly phonics assessments and felt that some children had room for improvement,” class teacher Singh admitted. “We found they needed a different approach in learning phonics.
“We came across the Footy Phonics intervention and felt it would be just that. I’ve seen a real growth in their application to phonics, they’re decoding, segmenting and blending words very well and it’s been great to see.
“There’s been a lot of positive impacts on Abel since the beginning of this intervention. He’s applying lots of sounds to his written work and is now able to associate the two of those.
“Our biggest success for him is that he passed his phonics screen check. The intervention is great, we hear parents talking about it and the children talking about it when they come back into the classroom.”
“Abel was identified because he was struggling for confidence in his classroom phonics sessions,” Greg Warren, PE and interventions coach at The Albion Foundation began. “The delivery from The Albion Foundation has allowed his abilities to flourish in a physical environment outside of the classroom.
“Abel’s progression has been fantastic. He came in at the beginning and was shy and unsure about taking part.
“Over the weeks we’ve seen his confidence grow, him getting used to those letter sounds and taking part in physical activity is really great.
“We’ve seen a huge change in him as a person and it was lovely to hear him say at the end of the six-week block that he didn’t want the sessions to end.”
Footy Phonics hasn’t hindered learning outside of the classroom, in-fact according to class teacher Singh, the intervention has aided the children’s application in other subject areas.
“Footy Phonics has complemented our in-house sessions very well. It’s an active way to learn phonics and we’ve started reaping the benefits from this.
“Footy Phonics supplements our current programme and doesn’t hinder the fidelity of it.”