Phonics at Abbots Ripton Church of England Primary School
Intent
We believe that learning phonics is a crucial skill to support children in becoming early readers and writers. We know that this skill has to be practised, and applied daily and this skill is given priority in our school day. We also understand the importance of parents as partners, and have phonic and reading workshops at the outset of the school year, to support learning at home
Implementation
We are using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme to teach phonics in Reception and Year 1, and spelling in Year 2. The scheme ensures that phonics is taught with a systematic, synthetic progression. Children in Reception and KS1 have a daily lesson. In addition to this, children in Reception and Year 1 have a reading practice session three times a week, where they can apply the phonemes and words learnt in lessons. The three reading sessions focus on decoding, prosody (fluency) and comprehension of the text. This book is then sent home to share with parents through an eBook system after the third read, to supprt progressive fluency.
We move the children on at the same pace and have a mastery approach, where all children have the opportunity to learn the new phonemes and graphemes. We review learning every 6 weeks and support those falling behind with daily keep up sessions. Children in Year 2,3 and 4 who need support with their reading have Rapid Catch Up sessions daily, to support any gaps they may have in their phonic knowledge.
The Little Wandle website has resources for parents to support their child with reading at home. Little Wandle
Impact
Assessment of all children is carried out every 6 weeks in both Reception and Year 1, to highlight any gaps that arise. These gaps are reviewed in keep up sessions. The Year 1 children have the national phonic assessment which is carried out in June of every year. At the end of Year 1, the children are assessed for fluency and leave the Little Wandle scheme if they pass the phase 5 fluency assessment. Children continue to progress in their reading by using colour banded books.