An island initiative dedicated to teaching children phonics has secured partnerships with two English football clubs.

‘Actiphons’, a series of books created and written by husband and wife Simon and Kathryn Austerberry, encourages children to be active while also teaching them the relationship between the letters and sounds of the English language.

As well as offering a range of print and digital books published by Penguin, there are also online resources which allow parents to create learning experiences based on sports activities and playground games.

Simon and Kathryn recently partnered with two football league clubs in the north west of England - Bolton Wanderers and Salford City - to support community foundations which promote education and exercise for children.

Kathryn said: ‘While our range of books and other educational materials provide everything that parents or teachers need to enable children to learn at home or at school, we also know that sports clubs provide excellent opportunities to get children and parents involved.

‘This is why we have recently agreed partnerships with Salford City and Bolton Wanderers, along with their respective community foundations, “F92” and “Bolton Wanderers in the Community”.’

F92 is famous for its strong links with Manchester United's ‘Class of '92’, who led the club to glory during the Sir Alex Ferguson era in the 1990s and 2000s.

Kathryn and Simon are now eager to hear from sports clubs and associations in the island to set up similar partnerships, and if anyone is interested they are encouraged to email [email protected]

Kathryn added: ‘Here in the island there’s a passion for football and many other sports which opens up opportunities for us to explore similar exciting possibilities with local clubs and associations.

‘Encouraging young children to develop positive attitudes towards learning, exercise and sport means they’re more likely to adopt lifestyle choices that will bring long term health and wellbeing benefits.

‘This means there are potential benefits which support education, health and wellbeing – while at the same time introducing more children to sports which will help to nurture the next generation of players, participants, coaches and fans.’

The Actiphon books have been used in a number of educational settings across the UK.

The stories practice 69 letter sounds in the order they are taught in school - each with its own character and specific (sporty) activity. The aim is for children to ‘build their phonics skills’ by reading the books in order.

Characters within the stories include the likes of ‘Adventure Annie’, ‘Cricket Craig’, ‘Timmy Tennis’, ‘Olly Obstacle’ and ‘Swimming Sally’.

Talking about the purpose of the books, Simon said: ‘The books are all engaging and tell their own individual stories about the Actiphons characters, however their main purpose is to help children reinforce their phonic sounds.

‘For example, we help reinforce the “T” sound through the Actiphon “Timmy Tennis”, who is having a “terrific time at the tennis court tapping his tennis ball over the tennis net”, thus reinforcing the “T” sound lots of times through fun stories.’

To find out more, you can visit the Actiphons website at https://actiphons.com/