Episode 18: Phonics in Small, Rural Schools with Helen Hampton

In the eighteenth episode of The Sounds-Write Podcast, Helen Hampton talks about implementing Sounds-Write in small, rural schools. She discusses how to get started with Sounds-Write in this setting, how to maximise your resources and how to teach phonics to mixed-age classes. Enjoy!

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Transcript

Laura: 00:02
Hello and welcome to the Sounds-Write podcast. I'm the host, Laura, and in this episode I'll be talking to Helen Hampton. Helen is a Sounds-Write trainer based in Western Australia. Helen works a lot with small and rural schools in her region, so this episode is focused around advice for teachers at these types of schools. Helen discusses how to get started implementing Sounds-Write in this setting, how to maximise your resources, and how to teach phonics to mixed age classes. I hope you enjoy the episode. Hi Helen, welcome to the podcast.

Helen: 00:37
Hi Laura, thank you for having me on. I'm absolutely delighted to talk a little bit about training in remote rural schools.

Laura: 00:46
Yeah, really looking forward to hearing about this. It's, I think, going to be a really interesting topic and very helpful for teachers at those schools, hopefully.

Helen: 00:54
Yes, I'm sure it will. It's, it's a slightly different journey from some of the larger schools or more metropolitan schools, and I think even schools in the UK, as well.

Laura:  01:05
Yeah. So, Helen, could you begin by telling us a bit about you and your professional background for any listeners who don't know you already?

Helen: 01:14
Okay, well, I'm thrilled to share a little bit about my background and my journey into the world of literacy. I originally hail from the north east of England, specifically Middlesbrough and Teesside, and I made the journey down under to Australia in 1991, so I've been here for over 30 years. And my professional journey has been quite diverse. In the 1980s I qualified in what's known as operational management and subsequently held some senior management roles in retail and in recruitment throughout the late 80s and early 90s. And interestingly, a significant part of my career involved training and development of staff, and that proved to be quite transferable to literacy later on. So when my children arrived, I found myself lecturing at technical college, and also managing my own business, as well as raising my kids. And my foray into the realm of literacy began in 2007 when my daughter Matilda was diagnosed with double deficit with dyslexia. And I was very, very fortunate that her psychologist, who was from the University of West Australia, emphasised the importance of a linguistic approach to phonics. And I think it was one of those moments in your life where the world stops. And I was thinking, what is the difference with linguistic phonics? Anyway, I stuck to exactly what she said and I followed her recommendation, and I found a local speech pathologist who specialised in applied linguistics and a linguistic approach to phonics and targeted intervention. And after a couple of years of intensive tutoring we really began to see a lot of progress. And then I was able to take over and I dedicated about 2 to 3 hours per week working with Matilda until she got parity with her peers. And she's fine. She's in her late twenties, and no difference, it's great. It was a wonderful journey. Then this journey led me really to sort of really delve deep into, you know, how students, especially those with learning difficulties and dyslexia, acquire literacy or have so many issues with it. And so that led me to look at cognitive load theory, looking into working memory and just, you know, how it all goes together. It became a bit of a passion of mine, so I studied it quite at length. And then in 2011, I decided to formalise my experience and I trained as a specialist literacy tutor and set up a clinical practice in my lovely little picturesque town of Margaret River. But I was really, really surprised that the training focused on traditional phonics, which I really found very, very cumbersome compared to the linguistic approach that I'd been used to and that I had so much success with. And then I was deliberating whether or not, you know, how do I know, what do I do with this? And I actually did tweak a lot of the programme, or tweak the programme that we had to use, to a more linguistic approach. So I did move it around a little bit, but then I came across - I'd started reading a little bit about Sounds-Write and when it became available in Perth, I just jumped at the chance. And I was just delighted that first morning when linguistic phonics was mentioned, that it was a linguistic phonics programme, and I just was just delighted. And a lot of the lessons, actually, were quite familiar to me. And then as soon as I finished the course, I just transitioned all my students straight over to the programme, and the results were remarkable, and I never looked back. And, yeah, I just got busier and busier, and then I realised that there was such a lack of knowledge in the area where I live on linguistic phonics, or even any. It was a very, very whole language literacy based. And it was very difficult in those times to actually get to Perth and, you know, get good quality training. And I decided if I could become a Sounds-Write trainer, then I could, you know, do something about that situation in the rural southwest. And so I became a trainer in 2018, and I'm based in the picturesque town of Margaret River in the Southwest. And Maureen McDaniel and I have a partnership, Sound Literacy, and between us, we run Sounds-Write courses throughout the southwest, and we travel to remote areas as well, and we also deliver online training throughout all of Australia and even New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand. It's just absolutely delightful. And I'm just so grateful to be contributing to the literacy development in a lot of the diverse communities that we visit, and also just to try and change the landscape a bit in the more remote areas, too.

Laura: 06:35
Oh, amazing. Thank you so much. So, we're talking in this episode about small schools and rural areas. So, for those of us who aren't really familiar with that context, could you tell us a bit about what that actually looks like? You know, how small, how rural, how many classes or students and staff members, all of that?

Helen:  06:56
That's such a difficult question. It's a huge question, actually, because, as I've mentioned, I come from the UK, and what a rural school looks like in the UK to what a rural school looks like in West Australia is very, very different. And I think we - I'll do a little bit of background geography for those listeners who don't really understand the size of West Australia. And it's a vast, vast expanse and it commands about one third of the Australian landscape and it stretches over nearly, just a little bit less 2400 kilometres, from the tropical north, which is monsoonal, to the windswept coastal heaths in the far south. West Australia's main cultural capital is Perth, and it's one of the largest and most isolated cities in Australia, in fact, I think, in the world. And it holds 80% of the population, which is mad in a state this size. And so the rest of the state is quite sparsely populated. And as of 2023, Western Australia had about a population of about 2.8 million, with stretched out over 2.5 million square kilometres. So it's a huge, huge expanse. So, as I've already mentioned, we've got deserts to the east in the middle, and we've got beautiful oceans and seas to the, to the west. And basically the rural schools vary as much as the weather. So, you can have these tiny little schools with about ten students, you know, in a very, very isolated area with, you know, nothing around for about 150 kilometres. And when I say nothing, I mean there's no - very few shops, maybe a petrol station, something like that. And then access can be very, very difficult, especially in the Northwest, the Kimberley region, because they've got a quite - it's monsoonal, so in the wet season roads can become quite impassable, so getting in and out is problematic. And schools there are situated in the main centres, such as Broome or in the remote communities, often on traditional aboriginal land. And as I've already mentioned, you can have tiny institutions with ten students and a teaching principal, to larger ones with about 120 students, where you get Pre-primary to Year 10. That's just a little bit of background knowledge, because it does, when we say remote schools in West Australia, we actually do mean remote schools.

Laura: 09:39
Great. So, I can imagine, especially, you know, I'm thinking, you described there one of those really tiny schools where you've probably got one teacher teaching multiple age groups in a classroom. I guess that must make practitioners into absolute superstars when it comes to things like differentiation. So, what is it about these contexts that's so challenging in ways like that, but also so special, I can imagine, in many, many ways.

Helen: 10:13
One thing that we do have in those remote schools in West Australia is that they do actually have quite high turnover of staff. And so even in those teeny tiny schools that can sometimes have 8 to 10 students with a teaching principal, an EA, and a staff member - a teacher. Those teachers quite often are replaced every year as they're usually graduates straight out of university. So it's the EA and the principals that really hold the education. If you are a graduate teacher coming straight into a school, they really need to build relationships very, very quickly first. And I think that's the main thing. And I think that's why Sounds-Write is so good, because it does allow teachers to interact with students, therefore facilitating really good student and teacher relationships. And once you've got that connection in that relationship, then you've got the differentiation in place, because quite often they may be, in a really teeny tiny school, they'll have from pre-primary to Year 6 in one class. And so they've got to be very well organised. If they've got a trained education assistant, that education assistant will be really doing a lot of backup as well. Because you can't really, you know, they'll have to split the pre-primaries who have just started on their learning journey to, you know, the Year 3, 4, 5 and 6s. So they have to be very well organised, but they do, they are master at that organisation and differentiation. But within that as well, the diversity within the classrooms varies enormously. For example, in the Kimberley, English is often the third or fourth language spoken, and so you do have to manage that as well. Then also in the Southwest, there's very high proportion of English as a second language students due to the mining industry and also agriculture as well. And most of those students are going to come from Africa or Asia and they have little to no English when they go into the classrooms. And again, that connection with the teacher and the fact that Sounds-Write is so interactive, it means that those students can participate in those lessons straight away, and again, the teacher can differentiate as well with those students. So even if they are, you know, say, in Year 2 and, you know, their peers are at a different unit, you know, the teacher can still deliver the same lesson, but with a different unit with those children as well, so that they can feel part of the whole class and part of the lesson, and they can get success straight away. And it does build trust with them in the system. And it always amazes me how quickly students with English as a second language do actually pick up English when they have to, when there's no one else, they're speaking their own language. But I think another thing which really Sounds-Write has, is you can keep a very brisk pace with it and keep students engaged in the lessons. Because a lot of these kids are farm kids, and they want to be outside, on the machines and with the farm animals, so keeping them really, really engaged is helpful. And again, the use of whiteboards, I think that's one of the greatest things, because if students do make a mistake, there's no shame, they just rub it out and start again. And no one, yeah, no one really worries about it. But I think one of the challenges in the West Australia remote rural schools, and I think it's possibly similar throughout rural Australia to be honest, is there is a high rate of absenteeism among students and this can be for many reasons. It's often access to healthcare. So if they've got to go to a specialist dentist or speech pathologist or a specialist doctor, they're normally in the regional centres, so it will involve a lengthy car drive. Also, if they need, when they're bringing in the harvest - there's a lot of wheat production in West Australia - some of the older boys will be going to help their dads on the farm, and especially in the Kimberley, there may be some cultural reasons as well, where they're not attending schools. So because of that, ensuring that students catch up to their peers, it's essential that schools manage it. And so it's quite diverse and interesting how they all do it. And some provide small group, which is Tier 2 intervention, outside the main Sounds-Write sessions but within the school times. Others actually provide small-group or even one-to-one intervention before school starts, so from 8.30 to 8.50 - 20 minutes - and that works really, really well. And then other schools provide short, sharp one-to-one. So they'll just, you know, say students been away for three days, then they'll just sort of grab them out and while the class are doing something, again, outside of the main Sounds-Write session, and do just a little bit of short, sharp dictation, or a little bit of word building, or some reading, and just do that regularly, just so that they can catch them up really, really quickly. And again, quite often it's the EAs who do this. And I think because these schools are quite small, teachers can really identify students needs very, very easily and quickly, and really they can move with that, it's really responsive teaching at its best. And there's definitely not a one size suits all model, and even within a school they will use different models depending on the students, which is really nice to see. And I think I've already mentioned, it's an interesting point to note, it's often the EAs that deliver the intervention, and often as they're the most experienced practitioners within the school, because they're the ones that are stable there, and then they often drive and keep the integrity of the programmes as well, and they're very, very highly skilled EAs and teachers. And I think what I really, really like about the small communities, and when I've talked to teachers and EAs and the principals, they really not only get to know the students, but they get to know the families that they're working with. And the schools are normally these hubs for the communities, and so families are often on the school board or part of the parents and friends associations. And so they, you know, they really do form quite a close-knit group and it's a very, very, very special area.

Laura: 17:17
Wow, it sounds amazing. So, as you know very well, from the perspective of Sounds-Write and Sounds-Write trainer, one of the major challenges in training and supporting these really rural and remote schools in person, of course, is the distances, as you've described. So how do you, as a trainer, manage this?

Helen: 17:42
Well, I think because I come from a rural community myself, I've always had a lot of empathy of how difficult it is, and was, to acquire quality training. And so I think it was one of my goals when I became a Sounds-Write trainer, to always help rural schools access Sounds-Write. So having that passion to really, really help them, and that I also understand some of the challenges, has really made a difference. But I think one of the big game changers for supporting a lot of the rural schools has been the online courses. It's been so powerful, and it's really helped a lot of rural schools and communities access the training because distance is not a limiting factor. It's fantastic. And you know, we regularly train many rural schools from Victoria, West Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland and South Australia. And what is really, really nice is on the discussion forums on the online courses, is where they start to share their knowledge, and share their different experiences, the size of schools. And if you have had schools that are, you know, gradually implementing or training new teachers, who have implemented Sounds-Write, those teachers actually share their experience of observing it in the classrooms as well. And so it's really, really nice to read all of those discussions. And, the other thing where we support them, especially on the online training, we all have our weekly Zoom meetings where we're able to answer questions and give direction on implementation and what it could look like in a composite class. Because composite classes vary as well you know, it can be a composite class of two age groups, or it can be a composite class of the whole school, so it does vary accordingly. But we also always, if we have delivered some face-to-face training in a rural area, I always will offer a follow-up Zoom meeting and make sure that the schools have my contact details so that, you know, teachers can give me a call, or they can email us as well. Always, always, and we provide that too. But I think what has been another great help has been the Practitioner Portal. We've had such a great response from our remote communities with it, because of the, you know, it's really helped with the planning and a lot of the resources, and especially some of the downloadable texts. And mainly because hard copy books and resources can take a long time to reach some of the remote, remote areas. Especially in the wet season, and if there's road closures, it can take up to over two months to get hard copy items up there. And so it means for them that they can access text immediately, which is just fabulous and it means that they can implement the programme immediately, as soon as they've been trained online or face-to-face, they can download all the resources. And if they don't have Internet access all day, which many of them don't, they can just get really well prepared, get everything download and accessed, and they don't need it, and if the electricity goes off, as well, they can still deliver. And the other thing as well, I think to note, again, on the Portal, the Top Tip videos for each lesson. So if, you know, I always bring that to the attention, especially when we're doing the face-to-face courses, so that if we're not there, that they do have a little bit of backup if they can't quite remember what we did at the face-to-face training, which is different, whereas on the online training they've got six weeks, so they can actually go and revisit a lot of the videos, but the face-to-face they can't. And so it's also a great, you know, if two or three months down the tracks, teachers can actually refresh their post-training knowledge. And again, we have regular webinars that run every term. I actually deliver the Extended Code webinar, so we've got them all scheduled in for each term next year. And I think one of the great things about Australia, I know there's one in the UK, is our closed book - not closed book - closed group Facebook page, which is brilliant for sharing ideas and knowledge about how different schools implement Sounds-Write. And I know I've gone on there numerous times just to sort of have a look at the different, the different schools and what they're doing. And there's some great chats between some of the remotes teachers as well, it's really nice to see.

Laura: 22:15
So from your experience, what is it that makes Sounds-Write work for these small schools? What's good about Sounds-Write for use in that sort of setting, in small or remote schools?

Helen: 22:32
Well, I think, and I did actually have a ring around with a couple of principals about this, and a couple of teachers, to have a really good chat with them. And they chose Sounds-Write because of the theory. So, that it gave the theory and the practice, so teachers understood why they were doing what they were doing. And I've always, that's one thing that has always appealed to me about Sounds-Write, so the 'why' as well as the 'how' of training, and they confirmed that for me. So, I think that's one of the main things. And I think when you're working with a diverse group of students, understanding the 'why' you're doing things is really important. So if you think you've got a, you have a class of, say, three composite classes, you've got Pre-primary, Year 1 to Year 2, and you've got four students who are English as a second language, understanding why you do things and how children acquire literacy skills is really, really important. Now, the other thing is, well, a lot of the school leaders in these schools have an absolute passion for education, and they want to ensure that their students have access to great education, that distance is not an issue, and they want great teachers to provide it. And they've all said that great teachers have to have a really good understanding of the underpinning theory with what they're doing. And they say, you know, they all said exactly the same thing, that Sounds-Write did provide this. So that was really, really nice to hear. But I think the explicit delivery of Sounds-Write works well with this. So our very explicit lessons, they're just fabulous. And the other thing as well, where Sounds-Write has been implemented with fidelity the results speak for themselves. All the students, and the teachers as well, are confident and successful, which is really nice. And I think that success just breeds success, and they just keep going with it, which is just lovely. And I think Sounds-Write's flexibility is another reason why, that they choose it. So it can be used as a whole-school approach, even with composite classes, and it can be used as Tier 2 small-group intervention and Tier 3 one-to-one intervention. And if you could, just for example, if you've got a school, a really small school with only ten students, having one programme certainly does make a lot of sense. Because if you've got one programme for Pre-primary, then another one for Year 1 and 2, and then for the rest of the school years you're going to have another one, and then you have another one for intervention and you've got ten students, one EA, a teaching principal and a teacher, that's going to involve a lot of organisation and a lot of knowledge, a lot of training. So if you've got one programme - which Sounds-Write is - that can do all of it, it does work really, really well and that's one of the reasons where they have taken it on board and and they do work with it really, really well. And the other thing, once teachers and the education assistants are trained, it can be implemented straight away and access the resources, and especially, again, I've already mentioned the Portal and you know, the downloadable decodable books. And the other thing I think, the language of the scripts is consistent, as well, across the school. So the students get to know the routines, they become confident and even when there is no power, which is, you'd be surprised how often there is no power in the rural areas. Sounds-Write sessions can still continue because it relies on the skills of the teacher, whoever's delivering it. And they can even go outside if needed. And I know John Walker has always said you can teach Sounds-Write with a stick in the dirt. And you know, for many rural schools this actually is a reality. They, they do go outside and do go on country and do teach it with a stick in the dirt, which I just think is fabulous.

Laura: 26:33
Yeah, yeah definitely. And, you know, we do have all of these resources like the Portal and, you know, the Facebook groups and all of that kind of stuff. But ultimately, Sounds-Write is a no bells and whistles approach. You can just get the manual and start teaching whatever you have, whatever resources you have available, even if it's just a whiteboard.

Helen: 27:00
Exactly. And I think, as well, what is really good about it is teachers are in control of word choice, so they can choose words which are relevant to their community. For example, I always teach 'plough' and 'drought' because they, you know, they're relevant for kids who are growing up on farms. Whereas if you're in a metropolitan school, 'plough' and 'drought' may not be, you know, relevant to them. So having that control of word choice, I think, is really, really helpful. And that, again, word choice does help your students to connect with you because you're using words that are relevant to them and they are in their vocabulary. And I think that's the other thing that's quite powerful about Sounds-Write too.

Laura: 27:45
Yeah, absolutely. So for anyone listening who might have maybe recently trained in Sounds-Write and they work in a rural school, how would that kind of school go about implementing Sounds-Write? And where would you suggest that they start on that journey?

Helen: 28:04
That's another big question, Laura. I think you've got to ask yourself, what's the size of a school first, really. If it's a really small school with one teacher, an EA, and a teaching principal, I think it's going to make most sense for everyone to train and implement the programme across the school. You know, especially if you've got eight to ten students and usually they're split into two classes or even sometimes, you know, you've got one class with them all in. I think that's where it's going to make a lot of sense. Then if the teacher's sick, the EA or the principal can look after the students. So that would make a lot of sense. And then the Pre-primary students can commence the Initial Code, and older students, they will need to be assessed to determine their skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation. If they're able to blend and segment four and five sound words, then they could begin the bridging lessons before commencing the Extended Code. If not, determine where on the Initial Code they need to start. For example, if they can blend and segment CVC words, then they can begin at Unit 8 of the Initial Code. Now, for larger schools, you need to decide if you want a staged implementation. So, what I mean by that is, do you begin at Pre-primary and Year 1, and train those staff first and then as students move through the school, train staff as you go. And I think that is another approach. And I think what you need to ask yourself is if a school is struggling to decide whether they want a staged approach or they're going to do the whole school, is have a think about the upper school years, for example, Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. How many phonics programmes have they been exposed to? What type of literacy instruction have they had? And what are their abilities? Now, if their abilities are okay and they're doing all right, then maybe introduce the programme to the lower levels and then stage the implementation. Or if not, if those students are, you know, they've had bit of a mix or something's happened, then maybe implement it and deliver it to those upper years. Now, if, you know, regardless of if you're doing a stage delivery - sorry, staged implementation or whole-school implementation, the main thing is that if you're going to start, you always start the Pre-primaries at Unit 1, depending on where they are, and then see where your subsequent year groups are. And then, you know, assess, seeing what their skills are of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation. Similar to what I said for the smaller little rural school, you always do a similar thing. What are their skills? And then start them either on the Initial Code or Bridging Units, Extended Code accordingly. But it's always about their skills. I do know that some schools opt to keep their existing programmes and use Sounds-Write as an intervention, although I'm a much bigger advocate of let's put Sounds-Write, either staged implement it or put it all in as a whole school. Because you're not, you know, they will get improvements with their intervention groups, but if students are exposed to two or three programmes, it can be very confusing for them and they won't get the best results. Now, once a school has decided how they're going to implement the programme, whether it's staged or they're just going to go all out and everyone will be trained, it's really important that you support those newly trained EAs and teachers. So regular peer-to-peer reviews of lesson delivery, get them familiar with giving and receiving feedback from each other on how they're going with their scripts and delivering in class. And I think that it can be really challenging at first, but it's really, really helpful. And I know that's something that we have on the online course where participants have to film themselves delivering some of the Sounds-Write lessons. And it's very daunting at first but so helpful, we always get so many good reviews about it. And it just really ensures that the scripts are delivered with fidelity. And also at staff meetings, you know, regular script practise and going through error corrections, you know. And again, staff meetings are great for that, or even impromptu staff meetings are really, really good. But just really supporting staff, and using some of the Top Tip videos that I've already mentioned and, you know, keep that conversation going, as well. Now, to assess students in the classrooms, teachers will be using formative assessment all the time, and this helps to plan and structure lessons and monitor student progress as well. And this is always in the form of dictation, quizzing, or reading in text as well. So that's something that you're interacting with your students and you're just making sure that you're watching and listening all the time. Now, more summative assessments can be the Year 1 Phonics Screening Test. And I know Sounds-Write has actually just tweaked the Year 1 Phonics Screening test so you can actually do it at the beginning of Year 1. So, it's only got the Initial Code and sound-spelling correspondences. Then you can actually do another one that, at the end of Year 1, which has some of the Extended Code sound-spelling correspondences. So that would be a really, really good one. There's also the Young's Parallel Spelling Tests, as well. They are really, really good for summative assessments. Then for reading, you've got the YARC, which is the York Assessment of Reading Comprehension as well. Or the DIBELS, which has got a non-word component. I actually never delivered the DIBELS, but I've heard some very good reports. And then there's also NAPLAN, which is the Australian national assessments. Now, if you have a composite class of various age groups, for example, if you've got Pre-primary to Year 2 - that's often quite popular - you'll probably have to run two separate groups because you'll have your Pre-primary students on the Initial Code, and then your Year 1s and Year 2s will be, highly likely, on the Extended Code. If you have a trained EA, fantastic. This can make life much easier. So they can run the Pre-primary Initial Code group while the teacher delivers the 1 and 2 Extended Code group, or vice versa. With the Extended Code group, you can actually start working them in tandem and differentiate through word choice but use a common phoneme focus. For example, as new code for Year 1s or review for Year 2. So you can use Unit 1 sound /ae/ and Unit 27 sound /ae/, so you can just do some slight deviations from that. And they will readily be able to work in tandem with Lessons 6, 7, 8 and even 9. And then when students are ready, you can actually start bringing in the Polysyllabic Lessons 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. And there's also some lessons that all the groups can actually do together. So, for example, Lesson 3: Nonsense Word Sound Swap. You know, you can deliver it to the whole Pre-primary and Year 2 group. Once the Pre-primary students are at Unit 9 of the Initial Code and you've got them familiar with the nonsense word sound swaps, you can actually do that as a whole group. And I have done that myself, and it's very, very successful. There's also dictation, as another way you can differentiate between the different age groups. So you can use closed sentences or paragraphs. So the older students will have to write everything, and then the younger students will have the closed sentences, only having to write the CVC words that they've covered. And that's a great way to keep the whole class together, as well. And I think the other thing which is really helpful is the reverse of the scripts. You've got the follow-up lessons, and these are really great if you need to set up one group independently while you work with another one. For example, Lesson 8: Sound Review. There's some great tabletop versions that you can download from the trainee downloads on the main Sounds-Write website, and you can get students to either sort independently or in small groups. And then that can leave an EA or a teacher to deliver a main lesson to younger students. So there is those, those follow-up lessons are really, really valuable in the remote schools. Another great lesson which I really like for independent work is Lesson 9: Seek the Sound, where students, once you've set them up, they can look for words with the target sound in a phonic book or text that you've got. Or you can even start bringing in subject specific texts as well that you've been using outside of the Sounds-Write phonics sessions, and students can actually start looking for the target phonemes or words with the target phoneme in those texts. Now, the other thing is, the other thing you can do if you have students who are on different units in the Initial Code, whether it's whole class or small-group interventions, is you can prepare individual word puzzles for Lessons 1 or 5, or word cards for a Lesson 4 and deliver follow-up lessons to the whole group, each student using individual puzzles or word cards. And, you know, again, we've got a lot of pre-prepared cards and word puzzles on the trainee downloads. And you can have different students working at different units, but you're delivering the same lessons and that works really, really well with those follow-up lessons on the back of the main lesson scripts.

Laura: 38:20
Great, thank you. So, final question as we draw this podcast to a close. What kinds of things do teachers at these schools need to be aware of when teaching Sounds-Write in this particular context to make sure it works as well as it possibly can?

Helen: 38:41
I think the main one there is mastery of the scripts and error correction. It really is so important in these areas where, you know, if you can imagine, if you have, again, a composite class of three different age groups, you've got English as a second or third language for some, or English, you know, they haven't acquired English yet as well. Huge diversity in there. And having your own cognitive load reduced, because you've got those scripts fully mastered and under your belt. And also the error correction is really important. Because then you can, you know, differentiate with pace, you know, word structure, you can really be quite masterful to hold the whole class together. And it really ensures that you're going to be responsive to your student needs. And I think the other thing as well, making sure that all your resources are planned and organised before your Sounds-Write session. And I think that goes for any Sounds-Write practitioner. But again, you know, looking at, if you've got different age groups, different needs, and you don't know if the power is going to go out or your Internet's going to drop off as well, just having everything there at hand is really, really, really helpful. And again, keeping to a brisk pace so that students are engaged, and also keep a variety of lessons as well, at least three, so that students get a really good mix of review, new knowledge and reading and writing in connected text as well. And we have some great planning documents on the downloads, which are really good for planning. And there's some, another, there's some planning videos on the Portal as well. So they're really, really good. And I think they're relevant to, you know, all schools. But in particular, I really, really would emphasise that for the small rural schools. And I think the other thing is knowing what resources are available and where they are. You know, we've had talk about the Portal and trainee downloads, so get yourself really, really familiar with them. So you know what's there and what's at hand and what you can use. And I know SPELD South Australia has just produced some decodable books that follow the Sounds-Write sequence and feature Australian characters and landscapes, which are really helpful. And we've also got all the Sounds-Write decodable readers on the Australian online shop, as well. And that's really, really helpful too. And there's also the First Steps Initial Code and First Steps Extended Code, and they're actually free downloads as well, if you want to use them straight away. And I think the other thing, what you need to do if you're in a remote rural area too, is keep up your training. Really keep connected with your Sounds-Write community. We have Sounds-Write Revisited. So, if you have got trained from the 1 September 2023, you're going to be able to eligible for that after one year of practising Sounds-Write. But if not, you know, please book on Sounds-Write Revisited after a year of practising, because it really does polish up your skills. And we've also got master classes in phonic leads and intervention as well, so they're really, really helpful. And we've also got the new practitioner - sorry - the new Phonic Lead Handbook and that is just full of useful advice and knowledge as well. And it's all of these little tidbits you'll be able to pick up. And I think Sounds-Write for Years 3 to 6 is a fantastic course. And I still think Year 1, 2 and 3 should be doing it, because it expands on the polysyllabic lessons and it really looks at more depth on morphology and etymology of words and how to use and apply them with written text. And they, you know, and the manual that goes with it is so valuable, and it really becomes a part of, I would say, for more advanced Sounds-Write sessions with, with older students, you can really start tearing and teasing these words apart. And I think finally, you know, collegiate support. Whether it's in your own school, or ones close by via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, I know we have little clusters of schools and they do get together and visit each other and they have really good Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting. And you can also keep in touch with other remote schools via the closed group Facebook page as well. So connecting with some of those other schools on there is helpful. And I know we've had emails before where someone said, 'oh, do you know any schools that have got this size or, you know, this type of composite class?', and we will, if we know, we'll put you in touch with them, too. And again, there's, you know, if you've got certain questions for rural schools, you can put in the search of the closed group Facebook page a little question, and you'll be amazed what comes up, and often can answer your implementation questions on how to deliver the lessons.
 
Laura: 43:49
Great. Thank you so much, Helen. There's been, I think, so much useful advice in there for those people listening from small schools, and really interesting for those of us who don't, to dive into the world of rural Australian schools.

Helen: 44:08
Oh, it's been an absolute pleasure, Laura. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Laura:  44:13
Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on. And, yeah. I'll see you next time.

Helen: 44:20
Thank you Laura.

Laura: 44:21
Bye.