PHONICS AND READING
"One of the greatest gifts adults can give is to read to children" Carl Sagan
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Intent
Phonics (reading and spelling)
At Todwick Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. 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 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.
As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Todwick Primary School, 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.
Comprehension
At Todwick Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Reading Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
Implementation
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 Phases 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 and above 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 Rapid Catch-up assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Rapid Catch-up resources – at pace.
- These short, sharp lessons last 15-20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.
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 Years 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.
Home reading
- The decodable reading practice book is 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 share the research behind the importance and impact of sharing quality children’s books with parents through workshops, leaflets and the Everybody read!
- 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.
School Library and Classroom Libraries
Every child in Todwick Primary School will have access to good quality literature with our classroom libraries and the school library.
Home share books FS2/KS1
We chose books that we believe are worth reading and re-reading- stories that children will love. Books have been carefully selected for each class by authors that have been studied in literacy lessons through the class story book. We have a mixture of old favourites and also new literature.
All books have been recommended by the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) or have won literature awards.
Children can borrow a home share book for as long as they wish and change them during the week during their book swap time. We do expect our children to look after our books and for them to be returned in good condition.
The books are not decodable and children in FS2 and KS1 are not expected to read these independently. We have fully decodable books linked to the schools Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme that support our children to learn to read.
At Todwick, we want to know that all our children have experienced quality literature.
Inside the children’s reading diary is a list of some of the home share books available for your class. See if you can read them all by the end of the school year!
School library
Our school library is a warm and welcoming place. It holds a vast array of books that have been organised into subject areas and genres.
Teachers and children can take books from the library to serve their needs and a lunchtime library session is held weekly for KS2 children.
We listen to children's book requests and regularly introduce exciting new titles to our bookshelves.
Core Reading Lists
Our core reading lists reflect our commitment to providing our children with a broad and balanced curriculum. They mirror our ethos and aim to act as a mirrors and windows for children to see themselves but also the lives of others that may be different to their own.
Our reading lists celebrate 'old and gold' as well as the 'new and bold'. It is frequently updated and reviewed in order to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of our school community.
The books are read to the children during our shared story time at the end of the day. They are also used to support the teaching of reading comprehension, alongside our novel study books.
Author Visits
Meeting a real life author can increase children's interests in books, help them understand how books are produced and boost the confidence of aspiring writers in school. Take a look at some of our most recent author visits. Neal Zetter, SF Said and Suzy Senior joined us for a viritual visit!
Little Wandle For Parents
Little Wandle For Parents Please click the link for more information and support with Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised