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At Cherry Burton Primary School, we use Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) to teach early reading and phonics. ELS is a systematic synthetic phonics program that helps children quickly learn to read, write, and spell with confidence.
Our aim is for every child to become a fluent, confident reader who enjoys books and develops a lifelong love of reading. Through the ELS approach, children are taught to:
Recognise individual sounds (phonemes) and match them to letters (graphemes)
Blend sounds together to read new words
Segment words into sounds to support accurate spelling
Apply their phonics knowledge in reading and writing across the curriculum
Phonics is taught daily from the very start of Reception and continues through Key Stage 1. Each lesson follows a consistent, structured routine that helps children remember and apply what they have learned. We use high-quality, fully decodable books that are matched precisely to the sounds your child is learning. This ensures that children can practise their skills successfully and grow in confidence.
At home, you can support your child by sharing books regularly, practising the sounds they are learning, and celebrating their progress as they begin their reading journey.
For more information about Essential Letters and Sounds, you can visit the ELS parent website.
Supporting All Learners
A whole-class approach ensures that all children benefit from the full curriculum. Children who encounter difficulties are supported by the teacher throughout the lesson, and where further support is required, ELS has three interventions to ensure that any learning gaps are quickly filled.
ELS is designed on the principle that children should ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’. Since interventions are delivered within the lesson by the teacher, any child who is struggling with the new knowledge can be immediately targeted with appropriate support, usually during the Apply activity.
We know that children – especially those with educational difficulties – learn better in a mixed-ability environment where their learning is scaffolded not only by the teacher and support staff but also by their peers. In this most fundamental area of learning – learning how to read – this support is even more vital, not only to their success but also to the outcomes of the programme as a whole.
Over-learning, alongside a range of Apply activities, helps children who acquire phonic knowledge more slowly to succeed. In ELS pilot schools, all children learned to read at a similar fast pace, because children with additional support needs were rapidly targeted throughout the lesson, and any remaining gaps in their knowledge were closed the same day. Studies show that the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics supports all children’s developing skills when learning to read, and that phonemic awareness (the ability to discern and copy sounds in words) is key to progress. Children’s phonemic awareness supports them when learning how to read, and our rigorous and robust teaching methods ensure that all children build phonemic awareness.
If children require further support to achieve the outcomes of the lesson and keep up with the pace of the programme, ELS has three interventions that are to be delivered on a one-to-one basis: oral blending, GPC recognition and blending for reading. These are intended to be short and concise and last no longer than five minutes. They can be delivered in isolation, or different interventions can be used together to support children each day. This helps ensure that children do not spend excessive time outside of the classroom or in group intervention sessions where they are removed from the rest of the curriculum.
How Our Reading Books Support ELS Phonics
At Cherry Burton Primary School, we use the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme to teach early reading. To support this, children bring home reading books that closely match the phonics they are learning in class.
We use three main types of reading books:
Word Sparks
Traditional Tales
Project X
These books are chosen because they are fully decodable and link directly to the phonics content taught through ELS.
All of the reading books we send home are:
Fully decodable – they contain only the sounds (graphemes and phonemes) your child has been taught so far.
Carefully matched to ELS progression – as new sounds are introduced in class, books gradually include them.
Designed to build confidence – children can apply their phonics skills successfully when reading at home.
This ensures that children are always reading something they have been prepared for in school.
Word Sparks books are:
Highly decodable, closely linked to the phonics sounds taught in ELS.
Designed to encourage paired reading: adults read the longer text, and children read the decodable words and sentences.
Ideal for building confidence, fluency and comprehension at the same time.
These books allow children to feel successful while still being exposed to rich vocabulary and storylines.
These books retell familiar stories (such as The Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks), but the text is:
Fully phonically decodable
Matched to the sounds your child has learned
Structured so children can enjoy well-known stories while practising their reading skills
Traditional Tales help broaden cultural knowledge while keeping decoding at the right level.
Project X is a well-known series designed specifically for phonics learning. In ELS, we use the Project X Phonics and Project X Code books that:
Follow the exact phonics sequence taught in school
Support children with engaging stories, characters and non-fiction
Build reading stamina and fluency
These books are particularly good for motivating young readers and supporting progression from simple to more complex texts.
By using Word Sparks, Traditional Tales, and Project X alongside ELS, we ensure that:
Children apply phonics knowledge accurately
Reading feels achievable and enjoyable
Confidence grows steadily
Fluency develops through repeated practice
To support your child:
Encourage rereading of the same book several times across the week.
Praise their use of phonics when decoding words.
Enjoy additional sharing books together for pleasure and language development.
If you have questions about ELS, reading books, or how to help at home, please contact your child’s class teacher. We are always happy to support you.