Intent

We believe that all children can become fluent readers and writers and we value reading as a crucial life skill.  Through our systematic, synthetic  phonics programme children will master phonics to read and spell an increasing range of unfamiliar words.

How Early Reading and Phonics links with our school values

Children will learn to respect people from different backgrounds and periods through literature.
Children have the opportunity to read a wide variety of quality texts and develop a lifelong love of reading.  Children will be inspired to read and apply their phonics skills and knowledge to decode an increasing range of unfamiliar words.
Children will be encouraged to have the determination to succeed in every phonics and reading lesson.  Their achievements in reading and phonics will be celebrated.
Children are encouraged to persevere in phonics and early reading lessons to practise and apply their skills in order to become secure and fluent readers.

Implementation

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Scheme.

Here at Hempland Primary School, we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. To find out more about Phonics, Early Reading and Home Reading, please watch the video below.

https://share.vidyard.com/watch/TmUuPXawAvLYkTHBSx9YxN

Daily Phonics in Reception and Year 1

  • Phonics is taught for 30 minutes a day.  In Reception, lessons are built from 10 minute lessons with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible.  Each Friday, the week’s teaching is reviewed to help children become fluent readers.
  • 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

  • Daily keep up support is provided for children who need additional practise.  Keep-up sessions match the structure of class teaching but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
  • Children in Year 2 and 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check have daily phonics lessons.  Assessments are used to identify gaps in their learning and they are taught sessions to help them to make rapid progress.
  • If any child in Year 3 to Y6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics catch-up lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps.

Reading practice sessions 

  • Children are taught to read through reading practice sessions 3 times a week.
  • Children are taught in a small group using a book mathced to the children’s secure phonic knowledge
  • The reading practice sessions focus on decoding, prosody (teaching children to read with understanding and expression), and comprehension (teaching children to understand the text).

Home reading

  • The decodable reading practice e-book is available for children to access at home to ensure that success is shared with familes.
  • Shared books also go home for parents to share and read to children.

Here is a link to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised website for further parent information.

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

Phonics and Reading presentation for parents

Frequently Asked Questions

Early Language and Vocabulary guidance

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Book Progression Chart

LW How reading books are selected

Reception and Year 1 Programme Progression including tricky words

LW Glossary