Phonics
At St Chad's, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we are proud to be transitioning over to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised; a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.
The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Put simply, we want children to learn to read effortlessly so they can put all of their energy into comprehending what they have read and to spell effortlessly so that they can put all of their energy into composing what they write.
Early reading starts with phonics and developing good phonics skills in younger children is vitally important. The foundations for early phonics are laid from Nursery. This largely falls within the 'Communication and Language' and 'Literacy' area of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. The aim of this phase is to foster children's listening and speaking skills as preparation for learning to read with phonics. Children are provided with a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences which 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
From Reception onwards, we teach phonics for 30 minutes a day (to begin with 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.
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 Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
- decoding
- prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
- comprehension: teaching children to understand the text