Reading Scheme and Phonics

By the end of KS1, children will be fluent at decoding, and by the age of 11, we aim for children to be able to:

• read with confidence, fluency and good understanding, drawing upon a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct;
• have an interest in a wide range of reading materials and read spontaneously for enjoyment and pleasure;
• read confidently to acquire information;
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading;
• meet age related expectations for reading, with the aspiration to exceed them.

We teach early reading through the validated systematic, synthetic phonics programme ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’.

Right from the start of Reception, children will have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. This continues in Year 1 to ensure children become fluent readers. 

In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (see below). Four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are taught (GPCs) each week and they are then used in the final lesson of the week to review the week’s learning. Children will also learn tricky words during these sessions. 

In the Autumn and Spring term, Reception learn phase 2 and phase 3 GPCs. They then spend the final term learning phase 4. Year 1 begin the Autumn term revising phases 2, 3 and 4 before learning phase 5, which will be completed by the end of the year. Year 2 children begin the year by revisiting phase 5 and other previously taught phases. This ensures all children are confident with applying these GPCs, in both their reading and their writing. 

Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1. This helps to inform future teaching and identifies children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom, so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ and ‘Catch Up’ interventions. 

Children need regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned by reading

fully decodable books. Using the Big Cat for Little Wandle books, children enjoy reading practice sessions three times a week. Children read the same book aloud in each of the three sessions with growing automaticity and accuracy. Each session in this ‘three read’ model has a clear focus:

• Read 1: decoding
• Read 2: prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation
• Read 2: comprehension – understanding the text.