Reading and Phonics at Callow End

We aim to encourage all our pupils to become enthusiastic readers who enjoy a wide range of quality texts and read accurately, with understanding and with enjoyment.

Phonics

At Callow End CE Primary School, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme to teach children how to read and spell. We use a consistent, systematic approach from Reception onwards, helping children to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to become successful, enthusiastic readers.

Little Wandle teaches children the sounds (phonemes) that letters and groups of letters represent and how to blend these sounds together to read words. Children learn to recognise and pronounce sounds accurately before applying their knowledge to read words, sentences and books.

In Reception, children begin their phonics journey by learning the initial sounds and then progress through the programme in a carefully sequenced order. Each week, children are introduced to new phonemes and graphemes, practise blending and segmenting, and revisit previously taught sounds to build fluency and confidence.

Phonics is taught daily through short, engaging sessions. Children have lots of opportunities to practise their skills through speaking, listening, reading and writing activities. Alongside phonics lessons, children are given regular opportunities to apply their developing knowledge within the classroom and through our wider provision.

Reading

In Reception and KS1, our reading books are carefully matched to the phonics sounds that children have been taught. This means that children can practise reading independently using the sounds they already know, helping them to experience success and develop confidence.

Children read the same book several times throughout the week, with a different focus each time. They develop their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills, before celebrating their growing reading ability.

We believe that learning to read is one of the most important things a child will do at primary school. Through our Little Wandle phonics programme, alongside a love of books, stories and language, we aim to give every child the strong foundations they need to become a lifelong reader.

In Key Stage 2, high quality texts and focused questioning allow pupils to develop their reading and comprehension skills. Three planned Guided Reading sessions take place weekly across KS1 and KS2.

Throughout the school we aim to ensure that all our pupils develop:

• Excellent phonic knowledge and skills.
• Fluency and accuracy in reading across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
• Knowledge of an extensive and rich vocabulary.
• An excellent comprehension of texts.
• The motivation to read for both study and for pleasure.
• Extensive knowledge through having read a rich and varied range of texts.

Floppy’s Phonics provides our teachers with everything they need to teach your child the alphabetic code. This enables children to read, spell and write well, regardless of their individual needs and abilities.

Floppy’s Phonics is a rigorous systematic synthetic phonics programme which provides comprehensive multi-sensory resources to support learning in school and at home. Alongside teaching the letter-sound correspondences of the alphabetic code, Floppy’s Phonics enriches children’s vocabulary and develops their language comprehension. Letter-sound correspondences are introduced in a particular order and this enables the provision of cumulative sentences and texts for the children to practise with. Throughout each phonics session, children develop reading skills (print to sound), spelling skills (sound to print) and handwriting practise.

Lesson resources include display posters, reversible flashcards, sound books, decodable books, interactive activities and worksheets for each child to practise with and share at home. They are enhanced by illustrations featuring characters and themes from the Oxford Reading Tree series.

Further resources to help parents learn more about phonics can be found at the end of this section.