Early Reading & Phonics

Phonics & Early Reading

Early Reading at Hurst Green Primary School

We teach early reading through the systematic, synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Children have a daily phonics lesson right from the start of Reception which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and this continues in Year One to ensure children become fluent readers.

Phonics is taught 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.

In Reception teaching begins in the second full week of the Autumn term. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (please see below for the progression pdf).

Four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are taught (GPCs) each week and they are then used in the final lesson of the week to review the week’s learning. Children will also learn tricky words during these sessions.

In the Autumn and Spring term, Reception learn phase 2 and phase 3 GPCs and then will spend the final term learning phase 4.

Year 1 begin the Autumn term with revision of phases 2, 3 and 4 before learning phase 5, which will be completed by the end of the year. Year 2 children will begin the year by revisiting phase 5 and other previously taught phases to ensure all children are completely confident with applying these GPCs in both their reading and also their writing. (please see below for the progression pdf).

Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and help identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention.

For support with the pronunciation of the phonemes taught, please refer to the videos below.

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2

Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1

Reading Practice Sessions

Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2, read fully decodable books with an adult 3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions. These are then sent home, in the form of an ebook, for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their parents/carers. These 3 reading practice sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension. Our reading books in Reception, Y1 and Y2: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books.

Supporting your child with reading

Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.

There are two types of reading book that your child will bring home in Reception and Year 1:

Reading practice book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.

Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, ask them to decode (sound it out) and blend it. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

Reading for pleasure book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. From Reception up to Year Two, children will choose a book for you to share and enjoy together, with no expectation for them to read this independently. You can read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. Additionally, after reading the book you can pick out some words and help them to expand their vocabulary by discussing alternatives for these words. Most importantly, have fun!

Impact

The impact of the reading emphasis and teaching at Hurst Green Primary School will be:

Fluent readers
Competent and skilled readers empowered by their knowledge
High levels of comprehension and vocabulary development
A fostering of reading for pleasure
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check pass rates
High levels of engagement in the books children read
The ability to read across a range of subjects

Helpful Videos

A quick guide to alien words

How we teach tricky words

How we teach blending

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

Please find below an overview of the Little Wandle scheme used at Hurst Green Primary School.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised for Parents

Collins Ebook Instruction Guide

Please be advised that some tablets may require the app to be downloaded to view properly and you may see a blank white screen instead on the web browser. If you do get a plain blank screen instead of the book please try downloading the app.

We have also been told by the company that Amazon Kindles are not supported due to issues with the silk browser it uses.

If you are still experiencing issues please email it@hurst-green.dudley.sch.uk with the following information so we can try to troubleshoot and escalate with Collins if needed:

Device type: (i.e ipad,galaxy tab, phone or other device)

Device model: (i.e ipad air 4, galaxy tab 6, iphone 12)

Operating system version: (normally in about device i.e ios 15.5.5 or android 6.0)

Are you trying to use an app or website?

What browser if on the website? (i.e safari, edge,chrome)