Phonics Scheme - Little Wandle
Early Reading Development
After a recent review of the teaching of reading by the Department of Education we have made some changes to the way we teach reading at St Stephen’s. Our approach follows a scheme called Little Wandle letters and Sounds which follows the recommendations set out in the reading review.
There is also a link to the Little Wandle Parent’s Page on the main English page of the website which has further information and video’s showing key skills and pronunciation.
Some notable aspects of the reading approach Phonics In Nursery children receive daily sessions in the foundations for phonics, which focusses on all of the pre skills before the learning of sound and letter correspondence. This involves listening to and identifying sounds, making different sounds, etc.
Children will receive a daily phonics session, from week 2 in Reception, to learn the sound system with opportunities to apply these skills with activities for home learning. Correct pronunciation of these sounds and effective blending skills are key to success in learning the sound system to aid reading. There are videos on the parent’s page to show how this is taught in school.
In these sessions children will blend sounds to read words and learn ‘tricky’ words which do not follow the usual pattern of the sound system, they will also apply these by reading and writing. A programme overview is also available from the English web page.
Guided Reading Sessions/Reading Practice
Children will have regular reading practice through guided reading sessions with an adult three times a week focusing on the three key skills (Yrs Rec-2) – decoding (being able to identify all of the words), Prosody-(reading with expression using understanding of the words to read with the correct emphasis), Comprehension- (understand what is happening in the story).
The same book is used for all of three sessions in the week so children have the opportunity to apply all of these skills with the one text, giving them opportunities to practice. Books used for reading practice will be pitched within the secure phonic knowledge of each child meaning that these books must be fully decodable. Fully decodable means that the book only contains sounds children have been taught previously and are known securely. As a result books used to practice rreading should be easily read when they bring it home after working with it in school all week and will not contain words or sounds being learnt in the daily phonics sessions. Books will be sent home on a Friday and need to come back in to school on Monday.
Books to share and enjoy/develop early reading skills
During the week we still encourage children to take other books home to enjoy with an adult, a sibling or by themselves. These will not be fully decodable and are not meant to be used to practice their own reading. These books will develop a knowledge of story plots and characters, develop vocabulary, understand how expression can be used to enhance a story, develop comprehension skills and most importantly of all promote a lifelong love of reading. These skills are as important as decoding when children are first learning to read.
What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The national Phonics Screening Check was introduced in 2012 to all Year 1 pupils. It is a short, statutory assessment to ensure that children are making sufficient progress in the phonics skills to read words and are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning. Year 1 will carry out the check in June.
Children still requiring support with phonics/reading in Lower KS2
Children will continue to receive support with phonics until they are fully secure with the sound system and reading fluently. This is done through additional phonics teaching, continued guided reading sessions and intervention work. Children will be caught up as quickly as possible.
Parents can find out more information about Little Wandle by clicking here