Phonics Statement

At Yenton Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.

We start teaching phonics in Reception and 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. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

At Yenton Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. Our intent is that by the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. We desire our readers to be equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

We teach phonics for 20-30 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. Children make a strong start in Reception with phonics lessons beginning in Week 2 of the Autumn term.

Any child who needs additional practice has daily keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge. 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) and comprehension (teaching children to understand the text).

In Years 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

Also see related Intent and Progression Maps on our Curriculum page.