Please also see our reading rationale and our writing rationale.

Phonics in our own words

At Carlton Hill 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 synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching Little Wandle Foundations in Reception, we 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.

What is phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. Children are taught how to recognise the sound that each individual letter makes. Children are also taught to identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make (‘sh’ or ‘oo’). Children learn to blend these sounds from left to right to make a word, and this is an important step in learning to read. For example, when taught the phonemes /t/ /p/ /a/ and /s/ the children can build up the words ‘tap’, ‘pat’, ‘pats’, ‘taps’, ‘a tap’ and so on.  Children sound each letter in turn and then synthesise the sounds together in order to generate the pronunciation of the word. In other words, children learn to construct the pronunciation for themselves. Many of the letter sound correspondences can be taught in Reception. This means that children in Reception start to read lots of unfamiliar words for themselves, independently.

How we teach Phonics at Carlton Hill

Foundations for Phonics in Reception  

• We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
  • 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.
• We ensure Reception children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.
• Little Wandle Foundations is aligned to the non-statutory guidance on Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters as well as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework. We use it as part of our wider provision for Communication and Language, and Literacy. It supports children to:
  • develop their phonological awareness, including rhyme, alliteration, syllables, initial and voice sounds, and oral blending
  • love stories and rhymes, and learn by heart a bank of familiar favourites
  • increase their vocabulary and confidence to talk
  • improve their listening and ability to take part in back-and-forth conversations.
• We believe that the priority in Reception should be to build the foundations for phonics for all children. Research tells us that disadvantaged children start Nursery behind their more fortunate peers. By leaving formal phonics teaching to Reception, Foundations allows us to devote more time to working with children who need extra help to develop the skills and behaviours that underpin successful reading.

Language and nursery rhymes in Reception

• Research tells us that nursery rhymes can support children to develop their language, their awareness of sounds within words and even their later reading (Bryant et al. 1989).
• We use the Little Wandle Rhyme time videos and accompanying phonological awareness planning to complement and reinforce our Phase 2 teaching.

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 full-length lessons 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 Phases 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 in Reception and Year 1 who needs additional practice has Daily Keep-up support and is taught by a fully trained adult.
• Daily Keep-up lessons follow the Little Wandle progression and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition so that every child secures their learning.

Daily phonics and spelling in Year 2

• Year 2 begins by using assessment to ensure that children have completed the Little Wandle Year 1 progression. Any gaps in teaching are addressed through daily phonics lessons until the programme is completed. Corresponding summative assessments are carried out to ensure this content is secure.
• Once all Year 1 content has been taught and assessed, we teach a five-week Phase 5 review. This ensures that children secure the trickier elements of Phase 5 and can apply this alphabetic knowledge in both reading and spelling.
• We use the Phase 5 review assessment before teaching in Year 2 to identify any children who may need more support when teaching. We reassess after teaching the Phase 5 review.
• Once the Phase 5 review is secure, we teach the Bridge to spelling before moving to the Spelling units.
• Children with larger gaps in their phonic knowledge than their peers have daily phonics teaching and follow the Rapid Catch-up programme.

Children in Year 2 to Year 6: Rapid Catch-up

• We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 and above who is not at age-related expectations for 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.
• These short, sharp lessons last 15 to 20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.
• We assess children who are new to our school, new to the country or new to English using the Rapid Catch-up assessments to quickly identify their needs.
• We use the Rapid Catch-up assessments to identify the gaps in children’s phonic knowledge and teach these using the Rapid Catch-up resources – at pace.
• We assess children every four weeks using the Rapid Catch-up summative assessments to assess progress and inform teaching.

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach reading practice sessions three times a week. These sessions:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children
  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids on pages 11 to 20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’
  • 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, 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: teaching children to use phonic knowledge to read words
  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • comprehension: using dialogic talk to help children to understand the text.
• In Reception, these sessions start in week 4 of teaching at the latest. Initially, children will read wordless books. In these sessions, children review GPCs and are taught blending using teacher-led blending. Once children can blend, they progress onto decodable books matched to their secure phonic knowledge.
• Children read each book three times to develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension as well as book behaviours.
• In Year 2, we ensure children complete reading the core programme decodable books (up to Phase 5 Set 5). To exit the programme, we complete the final fluency assessment to ensure children can read with adequate speed and accuracy: approximately 60 words per minute with 90%+ accuracy.
• Reading in Rapid Catch-up lessons mirrors the core programme. Children following the Rapid Catch-up programme are taught to read using the 7+ fully decodable books. These follow the same progression as the core programme but are more appropriate for older readers.

Additional reading support for vulnerable children

• Children in Reception and Year 1 who are receiving additional phonics Daily Keep-up sessions read their reading practice book regularly to an adult in school.
• We prioritise children who may not have reading support at home or who may not have access to books. We ensure that they have individual reading times with volunteers and staff to share quality children’s literature to promote a love of reading.

How do we assess the impact of our phonics teaching?

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it. We use assessment daily within class to identify children who require Daily Keep-up support, as well as words and GPCs that need additional teaching. We use repeated practice throughout the day to ensure all children secure learning. 

Summative assessments are uploaded onto the Assessment tracker for Reception and Year 1. This data is used by teachers, Reading Leaders and SLT who drill down and look at the data at GPC, word, tricky word and sentence level. Secondly, SLT use the data to scrutinise and plan how to narrow the attainment gaps between different groups of children and to put in place any additional support for teachers.

 We assess every six weeks to assess progress and to identify gaps in learning that need to be reviewed or retaught. We assess to establish if learning is secure for more than 70% of children before new content is taught and to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Daily Keep-up support that they need. Every three weeks, we reassess every child who is not on track. 

Fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short one-minute assessments. They are used:

• in Year 1 and Year 2, when children are reading the Phase 5 Set 3, 4 and 5 books
• with children following the Rapid Catch-up programme in Years 2 to 6, when they are reading the Phase 5 Set 3, 4 and 5 books
• to assess when children are ready to exit their programme*

*Year 2 children can exit the Rapid-Catch-up programme when they can read the final fluency assessment at 60-70+ words per minute. Older children can exit the Rapid Catch-up programme when they read the final fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute. At these levels, children should have sufficient fluency to tackle any book at age-related expectations. After exiting their programme, children do not need to read any more fully decodable books.

Statutory assessment

• Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check
  resits it in Year 2.

At home

• Children will bring home a different reading book each week that matches their current reading level. We ask parents and carers to record each reading session in their child's Reading Record. Books will be changed weekly in class on your child's allocated day.
• Children will also bring home a "Share with Me" book. This book may be more challenging and is intended for you to enjoy together. Listening to stories and sharing books helps children build vocabulary, develop a love of reading and nurture their imagination.