NELI is designed to complement, not replace any other language or literacy programmes, including phonics programmes. The latter half of the programme includes activities to support phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge that the children will already have covered in class – all key foundations of early literacy development. These activities take place within the first 3 minutes of the small group sessions, expanding on the listening games that are provided during the first half of the programme. The session plans suggest one grapheme to focus on in each session. These graphemes are drawn from Phase 2 and some of Phase 3 (up to ‘th’) of the Letters and Sounds programme.