Phonics (Reading and Spelling) 

At Raglans Schools, 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 Raglans Schools, 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 Raglan Schools, 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, reading is made a priority in our school, with a dedicated Reading Team who drive the early reading programme. The Reading Team is made up of  highly skilled teachers of phonics and/or reading, and their role is to monitor our reading provision and support our staff, so that everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. 

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. Little Wandle Foundations is aligned to the non-statutory guidance on Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters as well as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework. We use it as part of our wider provision for Communication and Language, and Literacy. It supports children to:

• • develop their phonological awareness, including rhyme, alliteration, syllables, initial and voice sounds, and oral blending

  • love stories and rhymes, and learn by heart a bank of familiar favourites

  • increase their vocabulary and confidence to talk

  • improve their listening and ability to take part in back-and-forth conversations.

We believe that the priority in Nursery should be to build the foundations for phonics for all children. Research tells us that disadvantaged children start Nursery behind their more fortunate peers. By leaving formal phonics teaching to Reception, Foundations allows us to devote more time to working with children who need extra help to develop the skills and behaviours that underpin successful reading.

Language and nursery rhymes in Reception

Research tells us that nursery rhymes can support children to develop their language, their awareness of sounds within words and even their later reading (Bryant et al. 1989).  We use the Little Wandle Rhyme time films and accompanying phonological awareness planning to complement and reinforce our Phase 2 teaching.

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 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.

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. 

Daily phonics and spelling in Year 2

Year 2 begins by using assessment to ensure that children have completed the Little Wandle Year 1 progression. Any gaps in teaching are addressed through daily phonics lessons until the programme is completed. Corresponding summative assessments are carried out to ensure this content is secure. Once all the Year 1 content has been taught and assessed, we teach a five-week Phase 5 review. This ensures that children secure the trickier elements of Phase 5 and can apply this alphabetic knowledge in both reading and spelling. We use the Phase 5 review assessment before teaching in Year 2 to identify any children who may need more support when teaching. We reassess after teaching the Phase 5 review. Once the Phase 5 review is secure; we teach the Bridge to Spelling. Children with larger gaps in their phonic knowledge than their peers have daily phonics teaching and follow the Rapid Catch-up programme. 

Children in Year 2 to KS2: Rapid Catch-up

We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 and above who is not at age-related expectations for 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. These short, sharp lessons last 15 to 20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading. We assess children who are new to our school, new to the country or new to English using the Rapid Catch-up assessments to quickly identify their needs. We use the Rapid Catch-up assessments to identify the gaps in children’s phonic knowledge and teach these using the Rapid Catch-up resources – at pace. We assess children every four weeks using the Rapid Catch-up summative assessments to assess progress and inform teaching.

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

We teach 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 on pages 11 to 20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’

  • 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 use phonic knowledge to read words

  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression

  • comprehension: using dialogic talk to help children to understand the text. 

In Reception, these sessions start in Week 4 of teaching at the latest. Initially, children will read wordless books. In these sessions, children review GPCS and are taught blending using teacher-led blending. Once children can blend, they progress onto decodable books matched to their secure phonic knowledge. Children read each book three times to develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension as well as book behaviours.

In Year 2, we ensure children complete reading the core programme decodable books (up to Phase 5 Set 5). To exit the programme, we complete the final fluency assessment to ensure children can read with adequate speed and accuracy: approximately 60 words per minute with 90%+ accuracy. 

Reading in Rapid Catch-up lessons mirrors the core programme. Children following the Rapid Catch-up programme are taught to read using the 7+ fully decodable books. These follow the same progression as the core programme but are more appropriate for older readers.

Teaching reading: Fluency programme

We teach reading to children in Year 2 and above who have exited the core programme using Little Wandle Fluency. Each Fluency reading lesson is 25 to 30 minutes. The structure of every lesson is the same:

• • A pre-read to practise reading words and to support vocabulary

  • Children read aloud for ten minutes and the teacher ‘taps in’ to hear every child read

  • Focussed teaching of prosody, repeated reading and comprehension through discussion.

We assess reading speed and accuracy every 12 weeks and use these assessments to monitor progress and allocate books. We also use Assessment for Learning (AfL) and our professional judgement to assess each child’s progress in reading, so we can ensure that they have the right books to meet their needs. We review children’s prosody by using the Prosody grid. This gives us a picture of how well the child is reading aloud. Comprehension is taught through dialogic talk and teachers use their AfL to quickly address misconceptions and develop children’s curiosity and engagement with each book.

Home Reading and Parent Support

At the Raglan Schools, children in  Reception, Year 1 and those children in Year 2 who have not passed the Phonics Screening Check take home three books a week. 

• Children receive a decodable reading practice e-book which is matched to the book that they have been reading during their reading sessions that week. This book is assigned by the class teacher online. The purpose of this book is to ensure that successful reading is shared with the family.

• Children choose  a fully decodable book matched to their phonics level,  so that they can continue to practise their phonics in context.

• Children choose a ‘Richer Read’ sharing book which they can share with their family. This book promotes reading for pleasure and can be read by the child or to the child. 

In Year 1, to further support our families, we provide Phonics Packs, containing the sounds and words matched to the child’s phonics level.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

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 Leader and SLT use checklists and templates to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and have gaps in learning. 

Pleasure for Reading

‘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 highly value reading for pleasure and work hard as a school to grow our reading for pleasure pedagogy. We read aloud to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including those that reflect the children at Raglan School  and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures. In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free-flow time and the books are continually refreshed. Children choose from our range of carefully chosen books to take home and share with an adult.  As children progress through school, we take time to get to know them as readers and ensure that we engage in meaningful conversations about the books that they have read. By doing this we can recommend authors and genres of books to expand their interests. Children in Early Years visit the local library. We use the Everybody read! resources to grow our teachers’ knowledge of current books, the most recent research and to grow our own Reading for Pleasure practice.

• Summer Reading Challenge 

• World Book Day Celebrations

• Book Fairs

• Book Bistros and Story Cafes

• Mystery Reader 

• Daily Funky Fingers Activities - linked to Phonics

• Library Visits