The Aga Khan Nursery and Primary School,
Dar es Salaam

AKNPS, Dar es Salaam teachers have undergone extensive professional development on diverse concepts. This included learning about phonological awareness, reviewing Jolly phonics sounds, which is an approach to teaching children literacy through synthetic phonics, how to use the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Systems, which is used to observe and determine children’s individual reading levels and behaviour, and more. 

“Phonological awareness will help students become better prepared to learn letters and sounds together,” said KG1 Teacher Diana Marcus. 

The programme, which is interwoven into the curriculum, consists of various initiatives such as tracking the reading level of students on a monthly basis, conducting group and individual reading sessions, incorporating games and activities to teach phonics, sharing reading logs with parents so the students can read with their parents at home, and much more. Arts are also incorporated into the programme to show the students how singing, dancing and drama can be used to read stories, amongst others, with teachers also dressing up as different literary characters. 

“Individual reading records help in identifying students with learning delays and difficulties, allowing the teacher to devise strategies accordingly,” said KG3 Teacher Lilian Ngonda. 

Additionally, students are encouraged to use various spaces around the school while reading. For example, a “mobile library” has been created that carries books for the students to read in the gardens or elsewhere on campus. The usage of technology to enhance the students’ literary skills is also a vital part of the programme as students can use the ICT rooms to listen, read and write different vocabulary words and sentences online. Lastly, field trips are organised for the students, helping them apply the knowledge and skills they’re gaining from the programme.  

This enhanced literacy programme is one of the many initiatives AKNPS, Dar es Salaam is taking to provide its young learners with high-quality education to help them succeed inside and outside the classroom, with many more initiatives from the school to come in the next academic year.