Reading is at the heart of our curriculum at Kingsham Primary School.

We value reading as it is essential for all curriculum areas; has academic, social and emotional benefits; and can improve children's life chances. To become fluent readers, we teach early reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme that is taught in Early Years and Year 1 - as well as children in Year 2 or above who require additional phonics teaching. You can find out more about this programme by clicking on their website here. 

The Teaching of Phonics and Early Reading

At Kingsham, we teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers. 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.

Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a 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.
Rapid catch-up phonics lessons are used 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. 

Early Reading using phonics is also taught in EYFS and Year 1 through reading practice sessions three times a week. These are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children and use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments. 
 

Home Reading - Decodable Books and Share with Me

We want to encourage children to read regularly at home (at least five times a week). They will be doing this using:

• A decodable reading practice book to ensure success is shared with the family. 
• ‘Share with me’ books (which encourage reading for pleasure), which go home for parents to share with and read to children.
• Phonics sound and word packs to continue developing their phonic knowledge and application. 

Further information and support for Phonics and Early Reading can be found on Little Wandle's website and our 'Learning Resources' section of our website. 

You can also access our Phonics and Early Reading Policy below.