Halfway Nursery Infant School

Phonics and early reading

Here at Halfway Nursery Infant School we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds synthetic phonics programme from nursery through to year 2, to teach our phonics and reading. This is then continued when children transition to Halfway Junior School for year 3.  

Phonics

Foundations in Phonics for Nursery

In Nursery we teach Phonics through Little Wandle’s Foundation in Phonics programme.

It supports children to:

• develop their phonological awareness, including understanding of 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 Nursery should be building 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.

Phonics Screening Check

Each year in June the Year 1 children will complete the Year 1 Phonics Screening test. The check is designed to confirm whether individual children have learned sufficient phonic decoding and blending skills. The test consists of 40 words – it is a combination of 20 real words and 20 nonsense words for the child to read 1:1 with a teacher. This is carried out by a member of staff who familiar to the children and who has undertaken the phonics testing training. Children who do not pass this in Year 1 will be re-assessed in Year 2, in the same manner. The results of this are reported to parents in the summer.

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.
• 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 Phonics and Spelling in year 2

• Year 2 children begin the year with a review of Phase 5 phonics before moving onto the Bridge to Spelling in Autumn Term 2 and the full spelling programme from Spring term. 

Phonics is also embedded across the curriculum and the children are encouraged to use phonics to support them in a range of work. Phonics is displayed in each classroom across the school through the use of Little Wandle ‘Grow the Code’ charts. Children are encouraged to use these to support their writing in all lessons across the curriculum.

All children are assessed using the Little Wandle assessments at the end of each half term, children requiring additional support are then identified and placed in an intervention group that is matched to their ability. Children taking part in intervention phonics groups are assessed on a 3 weekly basis to ensure we are moving on rapidly enabling them to keep-up with their peers.

Early reading

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. 

These:

• are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of children.
• use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids. 
• are monitored by the class teacher and English lead, 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
• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text. 

A summary of the reading a child has completed will be uploaded to Tapestry each week with a comment on each reading skill:

• Decoding
• Prosody
• Comprehension

There will also be a suggested ‘Next Step’ for parents to continue to support their child’s learning at home.

 In Reception these sessions start in week 4 of the Autumn term. Children who are not yet decoding by this point have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

In year 2, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

For children who have completed the phonics programme we move onto ‘Reading for Fluency’ which is also part of the Little Wandle scheme. Little Wandle Fluency teaches all aspects of reading using vibrant, diverse and engaging chapter books created by contemporary authors and illustrators. Each book has been carefully devised to support children as they progress in reading fluency through years 2, 3 and beyond; making sure every child can become a confident, fluent and motivated reader. These sessions follow the routine of other reading sessions in school, taking place 3 times per week. With each of the fluency books in sets 1 to 5 containing 6 chapters and teaching sessions, the children accessing 'Reading for Fluency' continue on the same book over a 2 week period. After the 2 weeks of taught reading sessions children will take this book home for the following 2 weeks.

Home reading

The decodable reading practice book or reading for fluency book is taken home after the child has read this in school 3 times. This ensures that reading success is shared with the family.

Reading for pleasure books also go home each week for families to share and read to children. We share the research behind the importance and impact of sharing quality children’s books with parents through workshops and leaflets. 

Home reading records are sent home with reading books so that families can record their reading journey at home. We recommend children read their phonics or fluency book daily at home.

Parent's guides

Please see documents below for information to use to support your child's phonics journey. 

Further information and support for parents about Little Wandle phonics can be found in the parent's section of the Little Wandle website.

Videos to support you and your child with how to say the sounds in all phases can be found in the parent's section of the Little Wandle website.