At Yarnfield we use ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ for our Phonics teaching, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ progression, which helps children to build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
How is Phonics taught at Yarnfield?
- sharing high-quality stories and poems
- learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
- activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
- attention to high-quality language.
Reception and Year 1
Phonics is taught for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, this is built up over the course of Autumn term and begins in September in Week 2.
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:
- Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 sounds, 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.
What is my child is not working where they should be?
Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Key Stage 2 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resource.
How is Reading taught alongside Phonics?
We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
- are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children
- use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge
- are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
Each reading practice session has a clear focus. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
- decoding
- prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
- comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
How will ‘home reading’ books be allocated?
The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family. Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children. Any lost or damaged books are required to be replaced, this can be arranged via Parent Pay in the main office.
For further information on home reading, please look at the Little Wandle Parent Presentation on the ‘Phonics’ section of our website.
