We teach phonics for 30 minutes each day and follow the Little Wandle programme in Reception and Year 1. From the start of 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. Our aim is for all children to make a strong start in Reception by teaching phonics from Week 2 of the Autumn term.

We follow the Little Wandle 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.

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These sessions:

• Are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of children.

• Use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle assessments and book matching grids on pages 11–20 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: sound talking and blending to read the words.

• 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 will begin their reading sessions with wordless books to encourage conversation and understanding before we introduce worded books. 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, children will continue to do the Reading Practice sessions in Autumn 1, when the children are finishing Phase 5 set 5 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.

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 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 phonics knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last around 10 minutes.

‘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 Brownlow Primary School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.

Every classroom has an inviting book corner 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 Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their choosing time and the books are continually refreshed.

Children from Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this 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 school library weekly.

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). 

There are two types of reading book that your child will bring home:

A library (sharing) book.  Your child may not be able to read this book on their own as it is not fully decodable and may not match their exact phonics level. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

A reading practice book – Collins Big Cat. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. This book will be carefully matched to your child’s reading level. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! After they have finished, talk about the book together.

At Brownlow Primary School, we ask that children read their reading practice book for 5-10 minutes at least four nights a week. Please can you continue to record these reading sessions in your child’s reading record. The reading book and reading record need to be kept in the folder that will be provided when we start our reading sessions, and this folder needs to be kept in your child’s bookbag.

Children will be sent home with a Home Learning sheet at the end of each week. On this sheet, it will identify the graphemes that have been taught that week, as well as decodable words, tricky words, and sentences that the children have read. We recommend that you continually recap and practice reading the graphemes, decodable words, tricky words and sentences with your child.

These home learning sheets will be put into a phonics folder (which will be provided when we start teaching phonics). This needs to stay in your child’s bookbag so we can add to it each week. Please support your child by working through the pages in the folder, including those from past weeks, to consolidate their learning.