Resources to support a structured literacy approach, plus a large levelled book library

“It has the potential to be a really valuable tool for junior teachers, students or a parent audience of children learning to read with the structured literacy approach. With the instantly recognisable Sunshine Classics interface, teachers will find welcome coherence with the other Sunshine Online and previous Classics offerings.”

“The stories, with the engaging ‘decodables characters’ are … relatable. Some structured literacy texts, certainly at the earlier levels, can feel ‘forced’, but for the most part, the character challenges and plot lines are well rendered (even at the single syllable, first 8 phoneme level).”

“The downloadable certificates (and digital rewards) are beautifully crafted and potentially motivational for learners, especially in our clusters where they can be shown on the class blogs and Google sites.”

“One of the most promising uses is house-school partnership with opportunities for learners to practise with families, without having to take a bookbag home.”

An important affordance was credited to the multimedia, audio-visual elements of a reader being able to listen to the articulation of a sound in isolation and repeat back. This could be gainfully used for follow up practice focussing on phonemes learned and as an “excellent rotation activity”. The feature is then further augmented by being able to see the “proper segmentation and blending” of individual phonemes at word level.

"Sunshine Online is the primary online resource used within our junior school. It provides an outstanding range of literacy and maths activities. Our students love it and it is their ‘go to site’. Sunshine Online is used throughout the day, supporting literacy and numeracy. We are impressed by the massive selection of targeted and engaging activities."

"Sunshine Online is an amazing website that is integrated into our daily classroom programme. Teachers use the stories as a shared. It is great for differentiated learning because each group can read stories that are appropriate to their level and then complete the blackline master activities available in the Staffroom."

"Cockle Bay School teachers, particularly the junior school, utilise Sunshine Online for their engaging, motivating and fun reading activities. It has become part of our Reading Programme, as it helps our learners to develop and consolidate their knowledge, skills and strategies. Our students love it!"

“Springlands School has been using Sunshine Online for the last 5 years. During this time our students have loved the books and activities that support the classroom literacy programmes. The ebooks are levelled and easy to access."