Phonics

Intent 

Phonics (reading and spelling) 

At Rosedale, 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 Nursery/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 Rosedale, 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 Rosedale, 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 and a Phonics Leader, who both drive the early reading programme in our school. These leaders are highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support the school reading team, so everyone teaches with confidence and fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. 

 

Implementation

 

Foundations for phonics in Nursery 

  • We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:  
    • sharing high-quality stories and poems  
    • learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes 
    • activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending 
    • attention to high-quality language. 
  • We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception. 

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1 

  • We teach phonics for 45 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 Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.  
    • All children are exposed to additional blending practise throughout the day to ensure opportunities for applying and consolidating early reading knowledge. 

 

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 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 Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace.   
  • If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we carefully plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place five times a week.  

 

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week 

  • We teach Reception and Year 1 children to read through individual and group reading practice sessions three times a week. 
  • Individual: three times a week on a 1:1 basis with a fully trained adult and at least one of these times being with the class teacher. 
  • Group: three times a week and are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately four to six children. At least one of these sessions is with the class teacher. Both of these sessions: 
    • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments 
    • 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: teaching children to segment and blend words and sentences 
    • 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.  We continue to teach additional blending practise and reading in this way for any children who still need support with decodable books,  

 

Home reading 

  • A decodable reading practice book is taken home by each child to ensure success is shared with the family. The children in Reception and Year 1 also have access to the online Collins Big Cat Ebooks to practise the Group Reading session book that has been carefully selected for them. 
    • Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children.  
    • 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. 

Additional reading support for vulnerable children  

  • Children who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up or Catch up sessions read their reading practice book to an adult daily.  

 

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress 

  • All classroom staff have been fully trained in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. 
  • Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach 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 and Phonics leader use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching. Teachers and the Phonics Lead use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning. They use diagnostic skills and the placement assessments to identify the most appropriate interventions. 

 

Ensuring reading for pleasure  

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002) 

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010) 

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy. 

  • We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Rosedale and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures. 
  • Every classroom has an inviting book provision that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.  
  • In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading provision every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.  
  • Every child has a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school. 
  • As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read. 
  • Each class visits the local library every term.  
  • The school library is made available for classes to use at protected times. Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events etc). 

 

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  
    • weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings. 
  • Summative assessment 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 and Phonics 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.  

Statutory assessment 

  • Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2. 

Ongoing assessment for catch-up  

  • Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised summative assessments.