Reading and Phonics
At St Giles Spencer we have a carefully considered and sequenced approach to early reading. We use a mixture of pre phonics activities and Little Wandle to deliver a phonics programme that enables children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. Phonics is taught every day to consolidate and build on children’s knowledge. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly and compose their ideas step by step. This is done in 3 stages:
Discovering
In the discovering stage the emphasis is on Looking, Listening and Joint Attention.
Pre phonics falls into 4 categories:
- Environmental sounds – Water sounds, Outdoor walks, Animal sounds, weather sounds
- Instrumental sounds – Drum beats, Pots and pans, Bells, Shakers
- Voice sounds – Action sounds, Using mirrors
- Rhythm and rhyme, actions and body percussion – Clapping, Patting, Stamping, Quiet and Loud, Fast and Slow, TAC PAC
Pupils access reading in the discovery stage through ‘The Reading Experience’. This is where children share the 'love of reading' through using books that motivate them, holding their interests and giving them pleasure. Some children access tactile sensory books and complete activities that work on the pre-requisite skills to reading. Children “read” signs, symbols, words, numbers and pictures within the environment.
Children will engage in sessions using “Little Wandle Foundations in Phonics”
Developing
The developing stage uses Little Wandle along with with sensory activities to support the children’s learning.
Concepts from pre-phonics will still take place daily in order to embed the skills that children need to attend and learn successfully. Pre phonics falls into 4 categories:
- Environmental sounds – Water sounds, Outdoor walks, Animal sounds, weather sounds
- Instrumental sounds – Drum beats, Pots and pans, Bells, Shakers
- Voice sounds – Action sounds, Using mirrors
- Rhythm and rhyme, actions and body percussion – Clapping, Patting, Stamping, Quiet and Loud, Fast and Slow, TAC PAC
Children within the developing stage of their learning will also access “the reading experience” with an emphasis on a “love for reading”, having daily time to access high-quality exciting texts independently and take part in an engaging story-time with class staff.
Children who have established pre-reading and foundations for reading skills are supported to become effective early readers. Children are supported to develop a love of reading through accessing a wide range of texts and genres and there is a continued focus on developing language comprehension skills alongside more formal decoding and automatic word recognition skills.
We use the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ' systematic synthetic phonics programme to ensure children build a growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Alongside our phonics programme, we use carefully matched ‘Big Cat’ decodable reading books in order for children to apply their phonics knowledge and be able to access high quality texts and read for pleasure later on.
Deepening
We use the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' systematic synthetic phonics programme to ensure children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Alongside our phonics programme, we use carefully matched ‘Big Cat’ decodable reading books in order for children to apply their phonics knowledge and be able to access high quality texts and read for pleasure later on.
Children in the deepening stage of their learning will also engage in the “love for reading”. They will have access to high-quality, exciting texts, both fiction and non-fiction, which are linked to the curriculum topics. They will be able to share these at home as well as share a book at their phonetic level, which they will be able to read confidently.
