Following a well-sequenced SSP progression allows teachers to plan for phonics instruction in a structured way that will support and maximise student learning. As each letter–sound correspondence is explicitly taught, students are given the opportunity to learn one new concept at a time and integrate this new knowledge with letter–sound correspondences they have already learned.

Following an SSP progression is supported by cognitive load theory, a theory of how human brains learn and store knowledge. This theory tells us that students learn best when they are given new information in small chunks and can practise this new learning and integrate it with already known information.

The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy refers to the strong body of evidence supporting explicit and direct SSP instruction and its link to proficient reading development.

A quality SSP progression, whether it is free or comes from a commercial program, has several key attributes. If the SSP progression you choose aligns with this advice, you can be confident that you have chosen a suitable sequence to start building an SSP-aligned approach at your school. The Literacy Hub phonics progression is one example.

This 5-point list details what to look for when deciding on an SSP-aligned progression.

Watch this 3-minute explanation about teaching the alphabetic principle and building students’ skills from simple to complex.

This 4-minute read outlines the rationale for teaching irregular words in terms of their parts (letters and sounds) as opposed to teaching whole-word reading.

One of the most powerful and fundamental skills required for early literacy skill development is phonological and phonemic awareness. This ability to break up spoken language into component parts and manipulate the individual sounds in words is the glue that helps phonics content to stick.

‘Poor readers as a group do relatively less well on phoneme awareness tasks than on other cognitive tasks. In addition, at least 80% of all poor readers are estimated to demonstrate a weakness in phonological awareness and/or phonological memory. Readers with phonological processing weaknesses also tend to be the poorest spellers.’ (Louisa Moats, 2009)

Watch this 2-minute overview of phonemic awareness.

Read this 2-page PDF about the continuum of phonological and phonemic awareness skills and how phonemic awareness instruction can be incorporated in the classroom.

Download phonological and phonemic awareness lesson activities to use in your classroom.

You could choose from the following:

1. Lead your staff through Spotlight on systematic synthetic phonics progressions and included links.

2. Discuss the following questions with your staff (reflecting and evaluating).

• Do we as a staff understand the developmental progression of phonics knowledge and skills?
• How do we currently determine the order of teaching letter–sound correspondences across Foundation to Year 2?
• What can we do to support our students’ phonological awareness development?

3. Support your staff to explore the downloadable resources and use the phonological and phonemic awareness lesson activities slide pack with students in line with their needs.

4. Choose an SSP progression for your school.

1. Consider your current order for teaching letter–sound correspondences. Does it follow best practice?
2. Use the phonological and phonemic awareness lesson activities slide pack in line with the learning needs of students in your class.