Early Reading and Phonics

Intent

At Dilton Marsh C of E Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, 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 ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Dilton Marsh C of E Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Implementation

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

• In EYFS and year 1, we teach phonics for up to 30 minutes a day. Each week, the learning of GPCs is reviewed to ensure learning and progress.
• Any child who needs additional practice has daily keep-up support.
• 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.
• All children in Year 2 have daily phonics lessons for the first two terms to consolidate the learning from Year 1.
• We timetable daily phonics sessions for any child in Year 2 and above who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check or reached the required level of fluency to get off the programme.
• In EYFS and Year 1, we teach children to further develop their reading skills through reading practice sessions three times a week. The reading practice sessions focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody, comprehension.
• In Year 2 and above, we continue to teach reading in this way for any child who still needs to practise reading with decodable books.
• As well as a decodable book, the children also take home a sharing book. This comes from our own devised book list - ‘Dilton 50’ - and is tailored to all year groups.

Below you can find some useful resources to support your child at home. 

Click here to visit the Little Wandle parent page for more useful resources.

Impact

Our children will become fluent readers and writers. They will build on their knowledge of the alphabetic code and so, master phonics to read and spell.  This will allow the children to use their growing knowledge and skills in all curriculum areas, preparing them for the next stage in their education as well as fostering a lifelong love of reading.