'Children in the Early Years get off to a strong start learning phonics, and this continues into Key Stage 1.' (Ofsted, 2021)

Subject Leader: Mrs Handford

 

Phonics & Early Reading

At St Joseph’s, reading and phonics is a key priority for our children the moment they enter our school.  Reading opens the door to learning and to future experience.

We recognise that fostering a love of reading is the key to all learning and therefore, as a school, we teach synthetic phonics as the initial, and most important, approach to the teaching of reading. We want all children at St Joseph's to learn to read with confidence, to develop a love of reading and apply their skills competently to their writing. We use a consistent and structured approach to support a smooth transition as children progress and gain skills.

Our pupils learn to read using the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ programme which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Alongside this, our children are taught the ‘tricky words’ which do not follow the regular phonetic pattern. Discreet phonics sessions take place daily for 20-30 minutes. Phonics provision is also supplemented by a wide range of speaking and listening, writing lessons as well as spelling and grammar activities throughout the week.

Our well trained staff regularly read to the children exploring a range of stories, poems and information books. This is in addition to the books they take home. All classrooms have book corners where the children can access a wide range of books, both fiction and non-fiction to help embed their love of books and reading.

Children make a strong start in Reception and phonics 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.

Intent

• To ensure a consistent approach, to the teaching of phonics, across the school.
• To ensure that children are given opportunities to use and apply their phonics learning.
• To ensure that all children use phonics, as their first approach, when reading.
• To ensure that all children entering KS2 are secure at decoding unfamiliar texts.
• To ensure that when necessary phonics teaching is adapted and continues into KS2. 

Implementation

Core principles of our phonics programme

In EYFS and KS1 the children still following the Little Wandle programme, take part in a reading session led by an adult three times a week. Each session is half an hour long. Teachers plan and resource every group and the sessions that will be delivered. Each session is structured in a consistent way. The children will read the same text in each session and then take it home to read with their families to develop and encourage fluency. All our teaching staff in our school have been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress.

Session 1. Focus – Book introduction and first exposure. Identify front/back cover/blurb/ vocabulary children will encounter. First read of the book (decoding) where the adult will listen to individual children whilst reading at their own speed.

Session 2. Focus – prosody and second exposure to text. Key teaching points – fluency, expression, intonation, taking account of punctuation. Children re-read the text using expression and intonation.

 Session 3. Focus – comprehension. This is a mixture of verbal (adult led) or written (more independent). This session enables the children to draw on the skills from the previous two sessions as well as gain exposure to the range of skills needed for answering different types of comprehension questions.

Little Wandle Fluency

Little Wandle Fluency is for children who have completed Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised and are secure at reading the final level of books. Children become ready to move onto Little Wandle Fluency in Year 2 and 3 when they graduate from the Phase 5 Set 5 books and are reading at 60–70 wpm with an accuracy rate of at least 90% as identified through appropriate assessment.

We teach prosody in every Little Wandle Fluency reading lesson, building on the familiar practice from the Little Wandle core programme reading practice sessions. We know teaching prosody helps children to understand the text at a deeper level and connect to language – it makes the meaning of the words come alive for them as readers.

Each Fluency lesson includes repeated reading. We have chosen the activities we believe have the biggest impact and are easiest to implement in a group. They are:

• echo reading
• rehearsed reading
• emotion reading
• marking up texts for reading with prosody

Little Wandle Fluency promotes comprehension through:

• the pre-read activities which support vocabulary
• the bonus materials throughout each book that give children more information about the world of the book to help them connect to it more

• teaching prosody so that the way the text is spoken creates meaning
• chatting about the book in a dialogic way that gives children time to think and connect to what they have read

• clarifying any misconceptions.

We use a dialogic talk model to explore comprehension. This is a collaborative way of working which helps the children and their teacher to ‘think together’ and construct meaning (Mercer, 2003) The purpose of this part of the lesson is to have open discussions that encourage children to be reflective and build on each other’s ideas.

The children will take part in their Fluency reading sessions three times a week using the reading practice model. They are timetabled in for between 25 and 30 minutes. There is a trained reading team in place to support each group. Each book should last two to three weeks covering a chapter per session although this can be adjusted based on the needs of the children.

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:

Weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

Summative assessment for Reception and KS1 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.
• By the Reading Lead and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

A placement assessment 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.

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.

Home Reading Books:

In EYFS and KS1, each week your child will bring home two books. 

A reading practice book – Little Wandle Collins Big Cat.  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.

A 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 goal is enjoyment!

Parents are requested to fill in an individual reading record in order to give the school feedback on their child's reading progress.

Impact

Our aim is that children can read fluently by the end of Key Stage 1, enabling them to fully access learning at Key Stage 2 and beyond.

Reading is assessed in the following ways:

Statutory Assessment Year 1: Children take part in the Phonics Screening check. Any child not passing the check resits in Year 2.

Assessment Year 2: Children are assessed in Reading as part of the end of Key Stage 1 SATs.

Statutory Assessment Year 6: Children are formally assessed in Reading as part of the end of Key Stage 2 SATs. 

In School Assessments: 

Children’s progress in phonics is continually reviewed through daily informal and half termly formal phonic assessment as well as evidence from their reading and writing. Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any children needing additional support as soon as they need it.

Children undertake termly assessments using the Cornerstones reading tests (Year 1 from Spring term). Progress is measured using standardised scores.

Informal assessments - Teachers continuously assess children’s attainment and progress during individual and whole class reading sessions.

'Staff keep a close eye on how well pupils are learning to read and spot anyone who is falling behind. Well trained staff help these pupils to catch up'. (Ofsted, 2021)

 

Extra information and help for families

Our families can access extra phonics information, such as GPC pronunciation videos, phonics and writing phrases and tricky word support here For parents | Letters and Sounds