Phonics teaching
In EYFS and Key Stage 1 we follow the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised' systematic synthetic phonics programme to ensure high quality consistent teaching of phonics and early reading for every child. Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds draws on the latest research into how children learn best, how to ensure learning stays in children’s long term memory and how best to enable children to apply their learning to become highly competent readers. All teaching staff have been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress and use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
Our children in Nursery follow the 'Foundations for Phonics' programme to develop their phonological awareness and oral blending. This takes place alongside other activities to develop children's awareness of environmental and instrumental sounds, voice and body sounds, rhythm and rhyme and alliteration.
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In Reception and Year 1, children receive daily phonics teaching which focuses on oral blending, learning new GPCs, letter formation and reading and spelling with the new GPCs taught. Children also receive regular reading practice sessions each week which ensures opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned to reading fully decodable books. The reading practice sessions focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody (reading with meaning, stress and intonation) and comprehension (understanding the text).
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Children in Year 2 and above who may need additional support in their phonics learning can access the 'Rapid catch-up' programme provided by Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
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Reading at home
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We aim to work in partnership with families to develop our children's reading at home and in school.
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'Love to Read' books
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All children from Nursery to Year 2 take home a 'Love to Read' book which they have chosen themselves from our school library. These are books to enjoy with another person, listen to and talk about as part of the enjoyment of the whole reading experience — reading for pleasure. Please remember that you shouldn't expect your child to read this alone - read it to them or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!
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Reading Practice Book
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Children in Reception to Year 2 also bring home a reading practice book which has been carefully matched to their phonics learning in school. These books are aimed at supporting the children's stage of phonics learning and require them to focus on applying their phonic skills. Some books may focus on one repeated phoneme pattern in simple sentences, whereas others may have more than one sound in a range of simple sentences.
Children should be able to read these books fluently and independently. Please listen to them read this book and celebrate their success. You can discuss the book with your child and use the questions in the back page to ask questions about the text.
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Click here to visit the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' Parents page.
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