The Premier League has launched a free phonics resource to support children on the vital first step in learning to read.
The new Footy Phonics resource, designed to complement existing classroom practice, will be available to every primary school in England and Wales through the League's primary school education programme, Premier League Primary Stars.
The free resources offers simple, football-related activities to encourage five-to-seven-year-olds to explore the letters and the sounds they have learned about in class.
Developed in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, teachers and subject-specialist experts, Footy Phonics includes football-themed activities, classroom planners and worksheets.
Activities have been designed to support teachers to revise and reinforce phonics knowledge and skills to help young children to find the fun in reading.
"The new Premier League Primary Stars Footy Phonics resource uses children's passion for football to engage them in learning," said Premier League Charitable Fund Chief Executive, Ruth Shaw OBE.
"The resource is our latest free literacy offering for primary school teachers. It complements the Premier League Primary Stars suite of more than 650 free primary school resources designed to harness children's love of the sport to help them to learn and engage in classroom activities."
The Albion Foundation are one of the first club charities to deliver the programme in their local schools, with Moorlands Primary School in West Bromwich saying it is already having an impact on their pupils.
"All schools should welcome Footy Phonics because it complements our current phonics programme and also it's a different way for children to learn phonics in a friendly environment with experienced staff," said Davinder Singh, Moorlands Primary class teacher.
"The children take a lot out of it and they're talking about it when they come back in the classroom and you can actually see the difference that this has made to their learning, in school as well as outside school."
Launched in 2017, Premier League Primary Stars is the Premier League's primary school education programme.
Funded through the Premier League Charitable Fund, the programme uses the appeal of football to help children to be active and develop essential life skills.
"We know that learning grapheme phoneme correspondences - the relationship between a letter and a sound - can be challenging for some pupils and affect their confidence with reading," says Jim Sells, Senior Programme Manager of Sport and Alternative Provision at the National Literacy Trust.
"In England last year, one in five children did not meet the expected standard in phonics by the end of Year 1.
"Our partnership with Premier League Primary Stars has highlighted how enthusiasm for sport can engage young children who are struggling in the classroom and inspire them to love learning and improve their decoding skills.
"The Footy Phonics resource aims to support pupils to reinforce their phonics knowledge and skills in a fun and active way."
What is Premier League Primary Stars?
Premier League Primary Stars resources support a range of curriculum subjects at Key Stage 1 (age 5-7) and Key Stage 2 (age 7-11). More than 70,000 teachers have registered online to access the free national curriculum-linked content to date.
Currently 104 professional football club charities from across the leagues receive Premier League funding to deliver Premier League Primary Stars sessions within local schools.
The Premier League has invested more than £61 million into Premier League Primary Stars, through the Premier League Charitable Fund, to date.
To sign up for the free Footy Phonics resources, or to find out more about Premier League Primary Stars, please visit plprimarystars.com.