Intent  

We aim to inspire children by developing a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We treat reading as a highly valued life skill and aim to foster a love of books and passion for reading; our aim is for children to leave us as fluent readers and with a lifelong love of books. Our children will develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, which enables them to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with each other effectively. We aim for children to be confident in applying phonics to their reading and writing and ensure that they only read phonic decodable books in their practice sessions.

Implementation

We teach reading through daily practice sessions. We promote decoding strategies, prosody, fluency and comprehension in a range of texts, which are carefully selected by the teachers.  Daily phonic sessions following the Little Wandle scheme provide the children with the skills essential to decode with confidence. We work in partnership with parents so that they can more effectively support their children at home with the aim of children becoming life-long readers.

We ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, enjoyable and shows clear progression. Quality texts are selected to promote a love of reading, develop a rich vocabulary,  and to improve the quality of their writing.  Teachers are able to embed skills throughout the year in cross-curricular writing opportunities to ensure children make good progress and fulfil their potential.

Phonics;  At Southbourne Infant School we use the Little Wandle scheme as a framework for our phonics teaching. Phonics is taught systematically and consistently across every year group.  All staff have been trained and any children who are not keeping up are targeted with regular ‘Keep Up’ sessions. Children’s progress is monitored weekly and end of half term assessments are used to inform future teaching.

The Little Wandle programme is divided into Phonics Phases.

In Reception, children revisit Phase 1 which they have often been familiar with at Pre-school and then they are taught Phases 2, 3 and 4

• In Year 1 the children briefly revisit Phase 4 and then move on to phase 5, starting on aspects of Phase 6 that are in the Year 1 Curriculum by the end of the year
• In Year 2 the children revisit Phase 5, then complete Phase 6 with a focus on spelling and grammar

Impact Our approach to the teaching and learning of reading and writing, alongside our engaging curriculum enable children to feel confident and enthusiastic to learn in a range of contexts.  They are able to apply their literacy skills effectively and are confident readers and writers.

Click here for Little Wandle Parent Information