Phonics

Early Reading and Phonics

Intent

Phonics

At Heather Garth, we strive for all our children to develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

 At Heather Garth, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

 Implementation

Foundations for phonics in Nursery

• We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:

  • sharing high-quality stories and poems

  • learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes

  • activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending

  • attention to high-quality language.

• We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.

• Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.

• We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:

  • Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.

  • Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

• Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.

• We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace.

• If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place at least three times a week.

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:

  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children

  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids on pages 11–20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’

  • are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.

• Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

  • decoding

  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression

  • comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

• In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

• In Year 2 and beyound we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

Year 2 Little Wandle Spelling

In Year 2, we continue to support children to build the alphabetic code with the Little Wandle Spelling programme which provides a seamless link from the core Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, to learning spelling in Year 2 and above. This inludes a Phase 5 review in the first term of the academic year followed by bridge into spelling.

Home reading

• Phonics- The decodable reading packs are taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.

  • Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children.

  • We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, both online and through workshops.

• Children are allocated a specific day to change their books and have their planner signed by an adult in school. In order to be entered into the weekly reading raffle draw the children need to:

   

  FS and KS1 (Y1 and Y2)- Read on 4 separate days over the 7 day period and sign this in their planners to show the date the book was read and which book/pages they have read. E.g. If their reading change day is Wednesday, between Wednesday-Wednesday they need to have read on 4 separate days and signed this in their planners. This can be supported by yourselves. 

   

  KS2 (Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6)- Read on 4 separate days over the 7 day period and sign their planners to show the date the book was read and which book/pages they have read plus complete 1 book review per week. E.g. If their reading change day is Wednesday, between Wednesday-Wednesday they need to have read on 4 separate days and signed this in their planners, plus they need to have completed 1 book review. This can be supported by yourselves, however as they move through KS2 they should be completing this with greater independence.

   

  We recommend reading for around 10-15 minutes each time.  

Additional reading support for vulnerable children

• For children with complex SEND issues that affect cognition, the Little Wandle SEND programme uses the graduated approach with small step teaching tailored to pupils needs. Developed with special school members, the programme includes fully inclusive content so children can see themselves in the resources they use.

• Children who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up sessions read their reading practice book to an adult daily.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

• Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.

• Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme.

• Lesson templates, Prompt cards and How to videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson.

• The Reading Leader and SLT use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Ensuring reading for pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Heather Garth and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.

• In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed. All classes in school also have a book corner area where children can browse and borrow books to red both at home or at school.

• Children from Reception onwards have a home school planner. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.

• As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.

• Each class visits the school library weekly.

• Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events etc).

Impact

Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to read fluently and widely. They can apply their phonic knowledge to spelling. They have a wide vocabulary and can draw on this to support them with writing effectively, engaging the reader.  Most importantly, they will develop a love of reading and be well equipped for the rest of their education. 

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

• Assessment for learning is used:

  • daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support

  • weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

• Summative assessment is used:

  • every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.

  • by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Statutory assessment

• Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.

Ongoing assessment

• Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Little Wandle Letters and Sound for those accessing the catch up programme.

Websites to use at home to support Reading at home

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.youtube.com/ (Lots of stories available to share with your children)