Phonics
At Brackenbury 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 the first weeks of 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 Brackenbury 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.
Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
Phonics enables your child to learn to read quickly by teaching sounds and tricky words in a systematic order. This means that children are able to start reading words and sentences quickly – even as soon as learning their first four sounds! Children learn that sounds can be represented by graphemes (letters) and to blend sounds together to read words.
This is a useful video that demonstrates how to pronounce each sound.
You can find more information here at https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Order of sounds
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.
- We timetable daily phonics practise for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check.
Reading
Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week
- We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
- are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups
- use fully decodable books
- Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. 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.
- In Reception these sessions start when your child can blend. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.
- In Year 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.
Home reading
- The decodable reading practice book is taken home weekly to ensure success is shared with families.
- Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children.
How to support your child in reading at home: Reception.
How to support your child in reading at home: Year One
We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.
- We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Brackenbury Primary School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
- We promote a love of reading through our core books and Brackenbury Reads which are high quality picture books that we share at story time and throughout the day.
- Your child will bring a picture book to share home twice a week to share with you from the library. Stories are an invaluable way to support your child’s love of learning and develop their vocabulary.