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The development of language and literacy is at the heart of everything we do at St Andrew’s.  

We want our children to leave primary school as confident and skilled readers, writers, listeners and communicators.  

Emphasis on this starts in Reception and continues right the way through to Year 6.

Reading in School

A love of reading is encouraged and promoted throughout the school: every day, children are given time to enjoy books on their own, in a group or read aloud.

A love of reading is also fostered in activities and events such as World Book Day. Children at St Andrew’s learn to read through a mixture of individual, shared and guided reading sessions.

Early Reading

At St. Andrew’s we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme (SSP).

In phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words.

The children learn to recognise all of the different sounds and combinations that they might see when they are reading or writing.

Little Wandle is a fully comprehensive programme where children start learning single letter sounds in the Autumn Term of their Reception year and it builds in progression throughout Reception and Year One, preparing children for the statutory phonics screening that takes place at the end of year one.

How we teach phonics

  • In Reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
  • By the end of Reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
  • By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
  • Reception lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
  • Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
  • In Y2, phonic lessons are taught daily to children where appropriate – following the model of Little Wandle but plugging specific gaps identified through assessment.

Phase 2 Pronunciation Guide - Autumn 1

Phase 2 Pronunciation Guide - Autumn 2

Reading practice sessions

  • In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children apply their phonics knowledge by using a fully matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.
  • Reading sessions are 15 minutes long and happen three times a week.
  • The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
  • The children have access to this book online to read at home.

How do we assess phonic knowledge?

  • At the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning.
  • Children identified in Reception and Year 1 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
  • In Reception and Year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
  • The children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
  • Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.
  • Children who are in Y2-Y6 and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.

Supporting your child with reading

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 you will have access to at home:

1. Reading practice book

This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child and is accessed online. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy.

They should be able to read this fluently and independently – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.

Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success!

If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

2. Sharing book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure.

The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together and your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them.

Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

For more information and videos you can visit the LITTLE WANDLE WEBSITE

Teaching of Reading Year 2 to Year 6

Once children can read fluently, teaching then becomes group based, with a greater focus on shared understanding, discussion and answering questions. This is usually from the spring term in Year 2.

At St. Andrew’s, we use the Reciprocal Reading approach to support pupils to become fluent readers with strong comprehension skills.

In order to develop as fluent readers, they need to be able to read quickly, accurately and with appropriate stress and intonation. It is important to understand pupil’s current capabilities and teach accordingly.

All pupils will need an emphasis on developing this reading fluency, as well as the more basic skills of decoding which is covered by our Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme – Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.

A typical Reciprocal Reading session is taught as a whole class lesson around a high quality text that challenges pupils.

There is an emphasis on discussion and reflection to develop higher order thinking skills. It is important to teach reading comprehension strategies through modelling and guided support.

Reciprocal Reading follows a cycle of the following strategies

There are 4 comprehension strategies:

  • Predict: What are we going to read about in the next section? (Who, what, why, where, when, how?)
  • Clarify: Which words and phrases do we need to find the meaning of?
  • Question: Can we ask questions to help us learn more about this text?
  • Summarise: What are the main ideas of the text / this section?


Reading comprehension strategies, which focus on the learners’ understanding of written text, are rated as high impact on the EEF Toolkit.

Reciprocal reading is a structured approach to teaching strategies (questioning, clarifying, summarising and predicting) that students can use to improve their reading comprehension.

Reading at Home

As the children become more proficient at reading, they are given the opportunity to choose from a wider variety of books, including high-quality picture books, shorter and more complex novels.

Children are encouraged to read every night at home from their home school reading book.

They work as a class to try and get 100% reading every week which means every single child has read every night at home.

They have a reward if they manage this! Reading journals are provided for parents to make a note of their child’s home reading.

Intervention lessons, for those who need additional support to get back on track, include Toe by Toe, Code X and Lexia.

Writing

At St Andrew’s we base our writing on stories we have read in class or we link it to our class topics.

We combine spoken language, vocabulary and grammar skills and use these to support children’s creative writing.

We learn to construct sentences using a range of relevant grammar techniques and exploring a range of punctuation marks.

A range of fiction and non-fiction genres are taught throughout the year and children are taught the features of different text types.

Every week we edit our work carefully, checking for errors and making improvements to the words and phrases we have chosen.

We regularly publish our writing to celebrate our achievements and progress


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