Using the QCA Schemes

Through active methods and physical response children feel safe to explore and experiment with the new sounds. For those who prefer to listen and observe, they absorb the new language by watching others and gradually increase in confidence, until they too are joining in, responding to what they hear and see and engaging with others in short conversations and role-play.

Lower Key Stage 2

Units 1 – 12 explore themes that are of interest to young children, such as a playground game, a story or a piece of music. In these early units, the emphasis is on introducing individual phonemes, getting children to practise hearing these sounds, and comparing each with the letter or combination of letters that represents it. Most of the common phonemes are introduced in Units 1–12.

There are also suggested activities where children discriminate between similar sounds and practise segmenting words into individual phonemes, i.e. trying to hear each individual sound within a word.