At Fairhaven Primary School, we believe that all our children can and will 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 where children are taught to listen for sounds in words which later builds to recognising written sounds. In Reception, we 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. 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.​

 

Phonics

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 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. Every six weeks children in Reception and Year 1 are assessed to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed and to identify any children needing additional support. Teacher’s also use assessment for learning daily within lessons to identify children needing ‘keep-up’ support. Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Regular assessments of what has been taught take place to check pupils phonics knowledge.  

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Reading

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of children using books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids. 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 (word reading)
- prosody (read with appropriate expression)
- comprehension (understand the text)

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Keep up and Catch up

Any child who needs additional practice has daily ‘keep-up’ support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up sessions 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 prioritise phonics for any child who has not passed the Phonics Screening Check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers closes. 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.

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