We are delighted to announce that we are moving to ’Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds Phonics Scheme across the whole school.

 This program has a robust framework for teaching, learning and assessing development throughout five phases of learning. It very much 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.

Songs and actions are not applied instead there is a fast, fun and interactive approach in all lessons 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.

Teachers have so far found this particularly helpful particularly following the disruption to education that took place last year during lockdown.

Children in Key stage 2 will be supported to fill any gaps in learning and to read fluently with support for those identified this will take place three times a week as well as opportunities to read to an adult.

In Key stage 1, twenty minute daily phonics lessons are taught and the children read to an adult in a focused reading group three times a week.

The reading practise 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 on 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.