Teaching Approach to Phonics

At Millfields CE Primary School we teach every child to read through our systematic Little Wandle - Letters and Sounds Revised Phonics Programme. Phonics is taught daily for 30 minutes (F2 build up to this during the Autumn term). Each week there is a review lesson which allows children the opportunity to review and consolidate their learning.

Children are organised into groups with other pupils working at a similar stage. All sessions are taught by highly skilled staff who have received regular Little Wandle training. Although the Little Wandle programme is aimed at whole class teaching we believe that the organisation of our sessions allows for flexibility in teaching and ensures that our phonics curriculum is delivered at a pace which is appropriate for our children whilst still remaining ambitious.

In phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words. The children learn to recognise all of the different sounds and combinations that they might see when they are reading or writing. Our phonics teaching starts in Foundation 1 and follows a very specific sequence that allows our children to build on their previous phonic knowledge and master specific phonic strategies as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover.

In Foundation 1, sessions are planned using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ‘Foundations for Phonics’ guidance and supplemented with Letters and Sounds Phase 1 - aspects 1-7. The focus of these sessions is daily oral blending and language development through high quality stories and rhymes.

In Foundation 2 and Year 1, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised progression documents to ensure that our lessons are systematic and well sequenced. However, our expert staff will use their assessments to ensure that children are on the right stage of the programme based on their needs and this may sometimes be outside of the suggested term.

Phonics starts in Foundation 2 in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start from the very beginning.

By the end of Foundation 2, most children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.

By the end of Year 1, most children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.

We strive for every child to complete the programme by the end of Year 1 but we know for some children there may be gaps to plug during Year 2 and 3. For those children we continue to deliver daily phonics lessons using the Little Wandle approach but with a focus on targeting specific gaps.

Teachers assess the children’s phonics and reading progress on a half termly basis throughout the academic year. This allows staff to have a clear understanding of a child's progress against the phonics curriculum and ensures that children are in the correct group. It also means that pupils can be targeted for extra support where needed.

During the summer term of Year 1, children undertake the statutory Phonics Screening Check (PSC). This assessment takes around 10-15 minutes and is completed with the child's class teacher. The check requires children to use their decoding and blending skills to read 40 real and nonsense words. If children do not meet the threshold in Year 1 then they will continue to work on our phonics programme and will retake the PSC during the summer term of Year 2. We will inform you about your child’s progress towards the end of the Summer term and the children’s results will be reported in the end of year school report.

We know the importance of using phonics outside of our daily lessons. The strategies taught during these sessions are modelled in shared reading and writing across the curriculum and allow children to consolidate their learning throughout the day.

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