About Early Language & Literacy Foundations

Supporting young children to thrive and grow to have successful, fulfilling and happy futures.

Amanda Lowe is a former member of the Norfolk Advisory Service where she worked as an Early Language and Literacy Consultant for 3 years. Prior to this role, she was a teacher in the EYFS and KSI in Norfolk and Devon.

She is now a freelance advisor offering high quality, practical support for the development of phonics, early language and literacy. Amanda also teaches a year one class two days a week, providing her with first-hand experience of what works and what doesn't and how it feels to be a teacher of young children in these changing times.

Amanda has supported schools and preschools in Norfolk with the development of early language and vocabulary, effective phonics, reading and writing provision to drive school improvement. She has successfully developed early literacy lead teachers and supported leadership teams, managers, teachers and practitioners in: action planning; monitoring; training; peer coaching; lesson studies; modelling; auditing and much much more!

Her wish is to create a world where all children's lives are filled with wonder and awe, creativity and aspiration. Amanda is committed to developing enhancing provision for children to ensure that they have the every opportunity to live lives steeped in a true love of language and literacy and that they have the confidence, skills and attitude to create successful, fulfilling futures in the difficult world they find themselves.

Watch this space!

Many teachers that she has worked with have felt that the time it takes to plan phonics is not comparative to the time spent teaching phonics in class. They understood the importance of quality first teaching in phonics and so wanted to ensure that planning was appropriate. We also know that children are not all the same and do not learn in the same way, have the same interests or the same experiences. Amanda therefore has spent the past year developing a planning tool that will support teachers in planning phonics, in a fraction of the time, which is suitable and differentiated for the children in any class. It will allow the freedom and creativity that schemes do not always allow. Watch this space for subscription to the ELLF Planning Tool!

Also coming soon...

Resources to support schools in the monitoring and development of early language and literacy will be available for purchase on this site.

Resources to support families with helping children at home, from leaflets to send home each week to develop a clear understanding of phonics to top tips for developing language, reading and writing skills with their children.

Testimonials

"What Amanda did for our school has transformed the way we teach spelling and 'Letters and Sounds' and has made a huge difference to our children... My staff have been looking forward to her return... What Amanda gave us was quality and has resulted in qualilative and quantative outcomes"
Ori Dalton, Headteacher, Norwich, Norfolk - June 2011

"Inspirational!"
GTP Student, Norwich - September 2011

"Mandy Lowe has a unique way of getting the very best out of people - she simply inspires them. Her work with us has been exceptional"
Rachael Judd, Headteacher, Norwich - Sept 2011

"The session was fun, unthreatening and interactive. One member of staff commented, "usually I switch off this late in the afternoon but this was exciting and I loved the sense of humour Mandy has."

People left the session with increased confidence and with an abundance of teaching ideas so thank you! "
Bev Beaumont, Teacher, Harleston - Oct 2011