Intent
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum, since successful readers will lead to successful learners. Creating a love of reading at home and in school, teaching the skills of reading and early reading interventions are therefore paramount within our curriculum.
Phonics At St Andrew’s, 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 programme, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the progression map 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 can tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. Teachers 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, because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
Comprehension At St Andrew’s 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, the school has created a positions for a Reading Leader, to drive the early reading programme in our school. This teacher is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and is able to model, monitor and support the whole reading teams in Reception and Key Stage 1, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
Implementation
Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1
Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching starts as soon as the full cohort is in school.
In Reception, phonics is taught everyday without fail, 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.
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 regular, timetabled 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 also timetable 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. We prioritise the children who need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen.
We use the Little Wandle 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 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.
Books are matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments. They 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:
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- decoding
- prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
- comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
Sessions in Reception start in the Autumn term. 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
Decodable reading practice books that have been practised at school are then set as an eBook 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! resources.
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.
Ensuring consistency and pace of progress
Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach early 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.
Impact
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 and also in weekly review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
Summative assessment for Reception and Year 1 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.
The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker is used every six weeks to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.
Fluency assessments are used to measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short one-minute assessments. They are used: in Year 1, when children are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books and with children following the Rapid Catch-up programme in Years 2 to 6, when they are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books.
Using them allows us to assess when children are ready to exit their programme. For Year 1 children, this is when they read the final fluency assessment at 60–70+ words per minute. Older children can exit the Rapid Catch-up programme when they read the final fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute. At these levels, children should have sufficient fluency to tackle any book at age-related expectations. After exiting their programme, children do not need to ready any more fully decodable books.
Placement assessments is used with any child new to the school in Reception and Year 1 to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan and provide appropriate extra teaching.
The Rapid Catch Up Assessment is used with any child new to the school in Year 2 and above to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan and provide appropriate extra teaching.
Statutory assessment
Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics screening check. Any child not passing the check
re-sit it in Year 2.
Ongoing assessment for Rapid Catch-up in Years 2 to 6
Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through the Rapid Catch-up initial assessment to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan appropriate teaching
Rapid Catch-up summative assessments are then used to assess progress and inform teaching with fluency assessments when children are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books for age 7+.
Phase 2 Sounds - Reception Autumn 1
Phase 2 Sounds - Reception Autumn 2
Phase 3 Sounds - Reception Spring 1
Little Wandle - Supporting your child with reading
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.
There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:
A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.
A sharing book. Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.
Reading practice book: This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.
Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Sharing book: In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.
Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!