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 in Week 2 of the Autumn term. 

● We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress: 

o 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. 

o 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. 

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 Letters and Sounds Revised 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 phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place at least three times a week. Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week 

● We conduct reading practice sessions three times a week. These: 

o are led by a fully trained adult to small groups of children 

o use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids.

o are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis. 

The reading practice sessions have been designed to include these three key reading skills: 

o decoding 

o prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression 

o comprehension: teaching children to understand the text. 

Teaching reading

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

o   are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups or individual children

o   use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Rapid Catch-up assessments and book matching grids

o   are monitored by the class teacher.

·        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:

o   decoding: teaching children to use phonic knowledge to read words

o   prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression

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

·        Children read each book three times to develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension as well as book behaviours.  

Home reading 

● The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family. 

o Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children. 

o We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision.

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. 

● Phonic leader and SLT regularly monitor and observe teaching; teaching staff and SLT use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Assessment 

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it. 

● Assessment for learning is used: 

o daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support 

o weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings. 

● Summative assessment is used: 

o to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need. 

o by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place. 

Teaching phonics: Rapid Catch-up

For any child who is not at age-related expectations for reading, we use the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme. We recognise that these children need urgent targeted support so that they can access the curriculum and enjoy reading as soon as possible.

·        We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child who is not reading at age-related expectations. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen.

·        These short, sharp lessons last up to 20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.

·        We use the Rapid Catch-up assessments to quickly identify the needs of children who are new to our school, new to the country or new to English.

·        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.

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

·        An Initial Rapid Catch-up assessment is used:

o   with any child new to the school to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and to plan and provide appropriate extra teaching.

 Summative assessments are used:

We assess:

o   every half term to assess progress and to identify gaps in learning that need to be reviewed or retaught

o   to establish if learning is secure before new content is taught

o   to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Rapid Catch-up support that they need.

Children exit rapid catch up after half-termly summative assessments confirm they are reading securely at age-related expectations.

For pupils with SEND, phonics delivery is adapted using Little Wandle SEN foundation resources, tactile/visual mnemonics, and reduced cognitive load steps outlined in individual support plans.