Phonics and Early Reading

Power Point Presentation from the Little Wandle Parent workshop

Intent

Lyndon Green Infant School’s intent is that every child will learn to read, regardless of background, needs or abilities. We want our children to be fluent, confident readers. They will be exposed to a wealth of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and develop a genuine love of reading and a keen interest in a range of texts.

 We work to inspire them to become passionate life-long readers who enjoy books and have a desire to read for pleasure. In order for the children to have the will to read, and be able to read to learn, they need to have secure skills in reading so that they can read with fluency and comprehension.

 We are working hard to put reading at the heart of our whole curriculum underpinning every subject area. We want every child to read widely, and to gain a rich knowledge across the curriculum. By offering a wide range of texts, we aim to broaden their minds and experiences to allow them to empathise with the world in which they live and support the development of their cultural capital.

Reading is such an important life skill that it is imperative we enable them to become independent readers who can easily process information, fully engage in all learning and be well prepared for their next stage of their education.

By the end of EYFS we intend our children to be:

• fluent at decoding
• able to talk about the books they enjoy reading for pleasure.

 By the end of KS1 we intend our children to:

• read with confidence, fluency and good understanding
• have an interest in a range of reading materials and read for enjoyment and pleasure;
• meet age related expectations for reading, with the aspiration to exceed them.

Phonics

Reception

Validated systematic, synthetic phonics programme: 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised'

We teach early reading through the validated systematic, synthetic phonics programme 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' which we have just purchased and implemented.

Right from the start of Reception, children will have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.

 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 (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 and then will spend the final term learning phase 4. 

 Program overview EYFS

Videos support for Phonics -please click on links below

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2

Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1

The phonic programme exceeds the expectations of the National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals with clearly defined expectations set out term by term. The phonic progression identifies the grapheme phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and tricky words taught every week. A new sound is taught on four days of the week, with a review of the sounds taught for the week on the fifth day. 

Lessons follow the format of:

• Recall and review - short, pacey review of prior learning;
• Teach - introduction of new learning with strong teacher modelling;
• Practise and apply - children practice and apply the learning;
• Review of key learning - reinforcement of the key learning and addressing any misconceptions identified during the lesson;
• Apply to reading - children then apply their phonic skills to reading fully decodable books matched to their reading ability.

Daily keep up lessons

• The teacher will check that all of the children are keeping up in the lesson and will have the lowest 20% of children in their eye line.
• If children do not grasp the grapheme/phoneme correspondences and tricky words in the lesson, 1-1 intervention will take place on the same day, to ensure any misconceptions and weaknesses in learning are addressed. These sessions are taught by a fully trained adult.

Keep up sessions match the structure of the class teaching and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition. This is so that every child is secure with their learning and enables them to keep up with the expected progress.

Year 1

In Year 1 the children continue to build on their phonic knowledge, lessons follow the same structure as Reception, children begin by reviewing Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Daily Keep-Up lessons will be used to target children at risk of falling behind and those children working in the lowest 20% will receive 1:1 catch up with a trained Teaching Assistant.

Year 1 progression 

Year 2

During the Autumn term in Year 2 teachers will ensure that children are at the expected stage of their phonic teaching. Gaps identified from Year One are revisited and children are given the time to ensure that that they are ready for the next stage of their learning.

Any child significantly behind their peers will receive 1:1 catch up to ensure that the gaps are continually being closed. 

By Autumn 2 our aim is to ensure that children will be ready to move onto Phase 6 of their phonic journey with a daily focus on spellings and the related spelling patterns.

National Curriculum English Appendix – to follow