Phonics and Early Reading

The teaching of early reading at Gillingham Primary School

At Gillingham Primary School, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sound Revised as our phonics and early reading programme. This is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which has been validated by the Department for Education. The scheme enables teachers to support children in developing their phonics knowledge, in order to become fluent readers. Children in Reception and Year 1 are taught daily phonics lessons and those children who require support with their reading receive additional daily ‘keep up’ interventions that are delivered by a trained member of staff.

Please take a look at the resources at the bottom of the page to help you to support your child's reading journey!

Reading in school

Reading practice sessions are:

· Timetabled 3 times per week

· Taught by a trained member of staff

· Taught in small groups

The children read the same book three times in a week. The first time, we work on decoding (sounding out) the words, the second time, we focus on prosody (reading with expression) and the third time, we look at comprehension (how well the children have understood the book). We read the book three times in school because we want to develop the children’s fluency. The more children see words, the more they begin to read them automatically without having to sound them out.

Reading at home

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 access at home:

A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.
A sharing book. Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

You can find a list of books to explore with your child as recommended by Little Wandle here:

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/my-letters-and-sounds/everybody-read/book-recommendations/

The reading practice book

Each week, your child’s class teacher will assign your child a book to read which has been carefully matched to your child’s current phonic stage based on recent assessments. Your child should be able to read this fluently and independently. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it is ‘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 and celebrate their success! If they cannot read a word, read it to them. After they have finished reading, talk about the book together.

The sharing book

If children are to become lifelong readers, it is essential that they are encouraged to read for pleasure. To help foster a love of reading, children will choose a book to share and enjoy with you at home. Please note, your child is not expected to read this book independently. The book is for you to read to or with your child. Again, it is good to talk about the book with your child, but important not to turn the discussion into a test. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters

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

Videos of pronunciations for further stages can be found at the link above. The resources on this page will help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. 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. You can also find the full Reception and Year 1 teaching program overview to see what your child will learn and when. You can also access their wonderful Nursery Rhymes which are used extensively in Reception.

Programme Overview - Reception and Year 1