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Early Reading and Phonics
Intent
At New Close Primary School, we aim for all our children to become fluent readers and writers and so teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We begin teaching phonics in Reception and 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 wish to promote a love of reading and so ensure books, vocabulary and reading have a central role in our curriculum, not only to enhance learning, but to support the development of children’s emotional literacy.
Implementation
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
- In EYFS and Year 1, we teach phonics for up to 30 minutes a day. Each week, the learning of GPCs is reviewed to ensure learning and progress.
- Any child who needs additional practice has daily keep-up support.
- 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 timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or who has not passed the Phonics Screening Check.
- Phonic ‘catch-up’ lessons are currently being developed for any child in Year 3 to 6 who has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing.
- In EYFS, Year 1 and part of Year 2, we teach children to further develop their reading skills through reading practice sessions three times a week. The reading practice sessions focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody, comprehension.
- In Year 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any child who still needs to practise reading with decodable books.
- As well as a decodable book, the children also take home a 'Read Together' book. This comes from our own devised book list - ‘New Close 100’ - and is tailored to all year groups.
Below, you can click on the link to the Little Wandle parent page as well as our 'Phonics on a Page', which provides an overview of phonics at New Close. You will also find a video which supports the Little Wandle phonics programme for parents.
Impact
Our children will become fluent readers and writers. They will build on their knowledge of the alphabetic code and so, master phonics to read and spell. This will allow the children to use their growing knowledge and skills in all curriculum areas, preparing them for the next stage in their education as well as fostering a lifelong love of reading.
Click here to see all our curriculum policies, including our Early Reading and Phonics Policy
Phonics on a page - an overview of phonics
