At Fletching Primary School, we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we prioritise teaching all children the skills and knowledge required to become fluent and confident readers and writers. We teach phonics and reading using the Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds Phonics Scheme across the whole school.

This programme has a robust framework for teaching, learning, and assessing development throughout five phases of learning. It  focuses on positive experiences that build on children’s confidence and self-esteem as they see themselves progress rapidly towards becoming fluent readers, whilst avoiding unnecessary cognitive overload.

In Reception and Year 1,  twenty minute daily phonics lessons are taught.  The Little Wandle Scheme is a fast, fun and interactive approach where the children revisit and embed prior learning as well as learn new sounds and words. Regular assessment helps identify exactly where children are in their learning and teach to the child’s specific stage of development, as well as quickly identifying gaps in learning so that ‘keep up’ support can be applied.

Three times a week, the children read to an adult in a focused reading group using the Little Wandle Reading programme.  The reading practice books that the children read at school and bring home are closely matched to the child’s phonological awareness, and they should be able to read it with 90% accuracy. This is to ensure they can enjoy and understand the story rather than just decode it. The same book will be focused throughout the whole week to revisit words, read with expression and intonation using the punctuation correctly and then finally comprehension of the story events as they discuss and elaborate on these.  

We really appreciate your support and understanding of the theory behind only one book a week as it is very much about giving children ‘quality not quantity’ and embedding their learning securely into the long term memory. 

From Year 2 children will progress  to the Little Wandle fluency programme. This next stage focuses on developing all aspects of reading using a wide range of vibrant, diverse and engaging chapter books created by contemporary authors and illustrators.  Any children who are identified as having larger gaps in their reading at  Key stage 2 will be supported to fill the gaps in learning following the Rapid Catch Up programme. This is taught daily in small groups and regular assessments take place every four weeks.