Bishopton Redmarshall CE Primary School

Bishopton Redmarshall
CE Primary School

Early Reading and Phonics

    

 

Subject Lead: Mr D Williams & Mrs D Laviolette

Link LAC Member: Mrs J Lynch

Intent

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Bishopton Redmarshall CE Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers.

Since September 2023, we have up-dated our reading and phonics programme to 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. 

 At Bishopton Redmarshall CE 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.

 

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 30 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 early in 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.

 

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
  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids.
  •  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 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.
  • In Years 2, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

 

Progression in Phonics Document

 

 

 For Parents

 

Click on the pictures below to access resources that will help you support your child with saying the sounds and writing their letters:

 

Click on the link below to take a look at our progression document for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised: 

 

Glossary of terms: