Phonics & Early Reading

At Alderwood School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and 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.

Phonics is taught daily throughout Reception, Year 1 and the beginning of Year 2. Progress is tracked and monitored closely to identify children who require extra support in the form of ‘keep us sessions.’ These short sessions will be specific to individual needs and will take place throughout the school day.

We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 and above who is not at age-related expectations for reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen.

Support for parents

The Little Wandle website has a section dedicated to supporting parents. There are also some useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school and feel confident about supporting their reading at home.

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Reading at Alderwood School

Children take part in reading practice sessions three times a week. These are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children. We use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, they 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.

Reading at home

Each week, children will bring home their phonetically decodable reading book to share with parents/carers. Please try to read this with them at least three times a week and celebrate their efforts. They will also bring home a library book which is an opportunity for your child to build a love of reading. This can be read to them and enjoyed together. When you share a book with your child, please remember to write a comment in their ‘reading diary.’ We love to hear about how they are getting on at home!