Early Reading & Phonics
Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Clanfield CE School. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and it is our intention every child at Clanfield CE School has the opportunity to love books and love reading.
READING



Phonics
How we teach phonics
- In reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
- Phonics starts in reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
- By the end of reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
- By the end of year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
- Reception lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
- Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
- In Y2-Y3, phonic lessons are taught daily to children where appropriate – following the model of Little Wandle but plugging specific gaps identified through assessment.
- In Y2-Y6 there are planned phonic ‘catch-up’ sessions following a set model to address specific reading/writing gaps. These are short, sharp sessions lasting 10 minutes in length and taking place at least three times a week.
Reading practice sessions
- Children across reception, year 1, year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.
- These sessions are 15 minutes long and happen three times a week. There are approximately 6 children in a group.
- The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
- The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.
- In reception these sessions start in week 4. Children who are not decoding, do a little blending lesson, following the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sound Revised.
How do we assess phonic knowledge?
- In reception and year 1, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).
- Children identified in reception and Y1 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
- In reception and year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
- The children in Y1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
- Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.
- Children who are in Y2-Y6 and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.
By KS2, we expect all pupils to be ready for the whole class reading sessions which are undertaken daily. We use a VIPERS strategy to reinforce teaching of vocabulary, inference, prediction, evaluation, recall and summary. The focus here is on vocabulary development, the development of specific reading skills and immersion in a wide range of texts. These lessons use class novels as a stimulus for deeper thinking and link a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to these in order to further develop contextual knowledge and understanding.
We also promote reading for pleasure as this itself plays a major role within reading development. Each day the children will be read aloud to. This is often held before or after lunch so that it does not get missed off the busy day. Over a year, children will have access to 6 forms of text complexity in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence. These are based on Doug Lemouv 5 plagues of the developing reader. We believe, if we expose pupils to books that feature these complexities we are ensuring rigour in their reading which then prepares them for the next stage of their education. As important, each class has a well-stocked library and books are celebrated regularly with recommendations from teachers sent home in weekly newsletters. Our reading environment also promotes the whole school love of reading.
Click on the links to see our Reading Overviews and Phonics and Early Reading progression document: