National director of the Foundation Stage Ruth Pimentel said the scheme, which started last September in 180 schools and linked early years settings in 18 areas, would be extended to 32 more local authorities.
She also confirmed that the 'early reading development pilots' had been renamed 'communication, language and literacy development'.
Ms Pimentel said, 'It's to broaden it out to look at building on speaking and listening and the understanding that children's language development is the building block to their reading success.'
The scheme supports professional development and involves clusters of practitioners in local areas sharing knowledge. It uses materials such as Sure Start's 'Communicating Matters' and traditional nursery rhymes and poetry cards, linking these with the outdoor area, music and movement.
Professor Tina Bruce, who works as a specialist adviser in Peterborough, said, 'It's being able to link literacy in with the Foundation Stage. It's a systematic approach to phonics embedded in the wider knowledge of literacy.'
Professor Bruce worked with reception classes and linked private and voluntary early years settings, and a local childminder. Peterborough LEA gave extra funding for supply cover and additional training and resources.
Jenny Spratt, head of early years and childcare at Peterborough, said, 'We're running this as a two-year research project, so we track children from pre-school into reception. Practitioners have said that the training was immensely helpful.'
She added, 'We found that movement and acting out nursery rhymes was essential in engaging boys. For example, boys might build the wall with Humpty Dumpty on top so that he'd fall off, whereas girls would look at pictures of Humpty Dumpty in a book.'
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