Testimonials

Launchpad for literacy has opened our eyes to new ways of helping children make progress with their literacy.  For our setting it has been a resource I go to when I feel a little ‘stuck’ on how to help a child, perhaps if they’ve not fully understood an aspect of literacy.  It has helped me to see the small steps that children naturally progress through that are perhaps not as detailed in other documents.  I’m aware […]

Launchpad has massively up-skilled our Early Years staff in terms of child development, social development and communication skills. Practitioners are confident in developing these vital skills when working with our children in terms of knowing their next steps and how to tackle these. As an Early Years Lead, I felt confident when speaking to the Ofsted Inspector about stages of development and what I have done to ensure children make good progress, particularly children with gaps […]

All Staff feel empowered as they can use the framework to obtain the small steps needed to ensure progress for their class or key group. 

We find the Launchpad Toolkit a great resource to use for those children who are not ready to access RWI and also as a way of diagnosing where children are in their stage of development and what we can do to help them move on. In this way it has been used as an intervention tool for those children who have SEN or are working below age-related expectations.   

Communication and language development is an ongoing issue with children under 5, which has only been exacerbated by COVID-19. The need for high quality, good practice is crucial in meeting the needs of those children who have gaps in their communication, language and early literacy development. Launchpad for Literacy has enabled providers to identify the specific area in which the gaps lie and support them to focus interactions and resources to support the closure of these […]

We have found Launchpad for Literacy amazing at looking at how children communicate in the small steps we do and to support and identify key gaps and ways to support. The training is amazing!

I had taught in Reception for 15 years before I was trained in the use of Launchpad and I cannot believe the impact it has had on my phonics teaching. Previously we would have ploughed on doing the same thing and got the same results – children not able to blend. The benefits of being able to refer to a document, to enable practitioners to understand and then apply the pre-skills of phonics to their teaching […]

Launchpad for Literacy has been an extremely beneficial tool for us in supporting the needs of many children, but especially those who are developmentally delayed. Originally we used it as a tool to support identified children however over time the ideas and strategies have really become embedded in our setting and by further understanding possible barriers to learning it has had a positive impact on the attainment and progress of all of our children.

Launchpad for literacy has provided staff across our nurseries with valuable knowledge about the fundamental skills children need to become readers and writers. Equipped with such insight, practitioners are now able to identify more specific skill areas in which they can support children to learn, develop and enjoy early literacy. Support for children is playful and delivered through high quality interactions, planned and incidental opportunities. Opportunities for learning within everyday routines are seized. Environments are created […]

Launchpad is used by numerous settings in South Tyneside: Maintained Nurseries, Nurseries within a school setting, Private and Voluntary settings, and Children’s Centres. Some childminders are beginning to express an interest in using the approach The settings have found the approach invaluable to helping to identify strengths and gaps in children’s literacy skills. It has developed their knowledge base to ensure that they are supporting children by weaving the approach throughout the curriculum in a practical […]

Launchpad has been particularly useful for us in developing understanding of the importance of embedding the pre-requisite skills required before moving onto the next steps. Launchpad is excellent for drilling down to the very specific skills required and how one area of development impacts on other areas. The manuals have been particularly useful as the basis for CPD and workforce development. We are currently using it more as a reference tool to support target setting for […]

GLD: Launchpad helps us to target our lowest children much more specifically, supporting them to achieve GLD. We had 2 in particular this year that their Launchpad tracking supported their achievements – one from a motor skills point of view. The other from communication and language – specifically rhyme recognition and syllables. Phonics & PSC Data – We use Launchpad to support our phase 1 phonics small steps to success, this then feeds into when they […]

We feel that this year, Launchpad has contributed positively to pupil outcomes overall and we have increasingly referred to the Literacy Skills Framework in our roles as teachers. Children are leaving Reception this year without the wide-ranging gaps in knowledge and skills that we have seen previously. As a team, we feel that Launchpad has contributed significantly to this by helping us identify and address developmental gaps early, particularly in communication, language and literacy. The targeted […]

We have been using Launchpad for Literacy consistently in our nursery and reception for the past three cohorts of children. Each year we have become more familiar with it and have really seen the impact. It has formed part of our baseline assessments and also supported our daily interactions with children. As a staff team we are now able to identify specific gaps in children’s learning rather than previously not understanding why they aren’t grasping specific […]

We have used Launchpad as a reference tool in Nursery this year, particularly to support phonics development. One resource I regularly return to is the Skills Framework, as it clearly demonstrates the natural progression of learning through small, manageable steps. I have found the phonological awareness section especially useful, particularly the auditory blending statements, as they help me identify where children are in their development and what their next steps should be. More generally, the Skills […]

We have definitely seen an impact on our children who have been exposed to Launchpad, particularly in Nursery. We have noticed gradually declining levels of communication skills on entry to both Nursery and Reception. Children are significantly below age-related expectations which has a detrimental impact on all other areas of learning. Last year in Nursery, on entry, over 80% of children were below ARE in the Prime Areas combined and when they left we had 75% […]