Intent

'The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go'  –  Dr. Seuss 

At St John’s we believe that Reading is a tool which underpins and unlocks all areas of learning. We believe that every child can become confident, fluent readers and writers and that reading for pleasure provides our children with the opportunity to have a lifelong love of reading.  We teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through the school. We value reading as a crucial life skill and aim that by the time the children leave us, they will read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure and our children are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary.  

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.

Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term. · 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 GPCs, 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.

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

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 Year 2 or 3 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 resources – at pace.

If any child in Year 3 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place at least three times a week. If that is still not successful, alternative provision will be offered in liaison with the SEND coordinator.

For more information regarding implementation, go to our phonics information for parents page.

Inclusion

Children with SEND are supported with early identification of needs, followed by thorough assessment and careful consideration of how the barriers to learning can be overcome. Teachers work with the SENDCO to put appropriate class provision in place; where necessary, additional interventions are planned, carried out and reviewed. Additional interventions may include additional daily phonic sessions, Nuffield Early Language Intervention, additional handwriting or early writing interventions.

Teachers recognise how pupils with SEND can demonstrate their full potential through a wide range of methods.  All provision is planned and reviewed in consultation with the child to ensure that it is appropriate and helpful.

Impact

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it. · Assessment for learning is used:

o daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support

o weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings. · Summative assessment is used:

o every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.

o by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place. · The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised placement assessment is used:

o with any child new to the school to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan provide appropriate extra teaching.

Statutory assessment

Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics screening check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.

Ongoing assessment for catch-up

Children in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through:

their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment

the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds placement assessment where appropriate