Phonics

The context of our school

At Loddiswell Primary School we believe that it is essential that our approach to teaching phonics and reading is accessible to all learners, regardless of their background.

Intent

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Loddiswell Primary School, 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 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 Loddiswell Primary School, 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 Loddiswell Primary School, 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.

We believe teaching every child to read is so important. We have a Reading Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so that everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lessons 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 to ensure that pupils are blending by Christmas.
• 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 in the Summer term.
• 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.

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 or 3 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.

Teaching reading: Regular reading practice sessions

We teach children to read through regular reading practice sessions.  These:

• are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children
• use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and matching grid.
• 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
• prosody: teaching children to read with meaning, expression and rhythm.
• 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.
• In Year 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

• We use the Devon Library Service to ensure that our parents share and read high quality texts at home to develop a love for reading with their child.
• The Reading Lead has delivered workshops to our parents about our new phonics programme to engage our families and share information about the teaching of reading in KS1.

 Additional reading support for vulnerable children

• Children in Reception and Year 1 who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up sessions also read their reading practice book on a 1:1 basis.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

• Every teacher who delivers our new phonics programme has been trained using the Little Wandle training programme, so that we have the same expectations and delivery of the programme.
• 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 regularly monitor and observe the teaching of phonics and early reading; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

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 Loddiswell Primary School and our local community, as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• Every Key Stage 1 classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We share these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
• In Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day and the books are continually refreshed.
• Children from Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent 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.
• We encourage class visits to the local library.
• The school library is made available for classes to use at protected times. It must be booked via the school booking system. 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
• to assign reading books at an appropriate level
• to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
• to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children so that any additional support 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 Years 2 to 3 are assessed using the Little Wandle Assessments.
• Children in Years 4 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Accelerated Reader diagnostic reports. Teachers use to help them plan different reading interventions.