Phonics and Early Reading at Hollyfast Primary School

Vision

At Hollyfast, we understand the importance of children learning to read accurately and fluently to ensure success throughout their school lives and beyond. We recognise that reading is a key life skill and that the ability to read brings lifelong pleasure and opportunity. We believe that all children can become confident readers during their time in primary education, and we prioritise the teaching of phonics to ensure that all children are able to learn to read well and quickly.

Our vision is that children quickly become enthusiastic and motivated readers. They develop the ability to recognise, blend and segment sounds in order to read and spell words, alongside learning the high-frequency words they need to recognise automatically. This enables them to become confident, fluent readers who develop a good understanding of what they have read.

Our children experience a wide range of high-quality genres and texts, promoting a love of literature and an enjoyment of reading for pleasure and for information, as well as using reading to promote reflective thinking. At Hollyfast Primary School, we strive to teach children to read effectively and quickly through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised systematic synthetic phonics programme.

Little Wandle provides a structured and consistent approach to teaching phonics, including the development of phonemic awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), blending, segmenting, decoding and encoding. It also supports the development of spelling and handwriting alongside phonics.

We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is one of the core purposes of a primary school. These fundamental skills not only provide the keys to accessing the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children's self-esteem, confidence and future life chances.

Our Approach

The pre-reading skills that children need to become successful readers are developed from the beginning of their Hollyfast journey. In Pre-school and Reception, children develop their communication, language and listening skills, building the foundations needed for successful phonics learning.

Children are given opportunities to develop their awareness of sounds through listening activities, rhymes, songs, stories, conversation and purposeful play. They develop their ability to listen carefully, distinguish between sounds, hear and say sounds clearly and begin to orally blend and segment words. These skills provide an important foundation for the systematic phonics teaching that begins in Reception.

Phonics in Reception

Children begin the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme from the very start of Reception. Phonics is explicitly taught every day during a dedicated session on the timetable.

The programme follows a clear, systematic progression through the alphabetic code. Children learn new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes and are taught how to blend these sounds to read words and segment words to spell them.

Alongside learning new GPCs, children practise applying their developing phonics knowledge to read words, sentences and fully decodable books. Children are taught to read with increasing accuracy and fluency, while developing their understanding and enjoyment of texts.

Throughout the day, children use their growing phonics knowledge to support their reading and writing across the curriculum. They have regular opportunities to practise and apply what they have learned through writing activities, reading activities and continuous provision.

Daily Phonics Lessons

Daily phonics lessons continue throughout Reception and Year 1, following the Little Wandle progression and sequence. The systematic approach ensures that children build securely on their existing knowledge while continuing to develop their understanding of the alphabetic code.

Lessons provide children with regular opportunities to:

• revisit and review previously taught GPCs and words;
• learn new phonemes and graphemes;
• practise blending to read words;
• practise segmenting to spell words;
• apply their phonics knowledge when reading and writing;
• develop reading fluency;
• learn and practise common exception words and tricky words;
• develop confidence and independence as readers and writers.

The consistent structure of Little Wandle lessons helps children to know what is expected of them and provides repeated opportunities to practise and consolidate their learning.

Keep-Up and Targeted Support

Little Wandle is underpinned by the principle that children should keep up rather than catch up. Teachers continually assess children's understanding during phonics lessons and identify children who may need additional support.

Where a child finds it difficult to secure new learning, additional support is provided as quickly as possible. This may take place within the lesson or through short, targeted interventions. The purpose of this support is to address gaps in phonics knowledge before they become barriers to reading progress.

Children who require additional support receive focused teaching based on their specific gaps, ensuring that they continue to make progress through the Little Wandle sequence alongside their peers wherever possible.

Reading Practice Sessions

A key feature of Little Wandle is the use of fully decodable books that are carefully matched to the phonics knowledge children have been taught.

Children take part in regular reading practice sessions at school. These sessions develop three key areas:

• Decoding – children practise using their phonics knowledge to read unfamiliar words.
• Prosody – children develop expression, phrasing and appropriate pace when reading.
• Comprehension – children develop their understanding of what they have read, including vocabulary and meaning.

Because the books are precisely matched to the phonics learning, children are able to experience success and develop confidence as readers.

Children also have opportunities to read individually, with a partner and as part of whole-class reading and wider curriculum activities.

Home Reading

We recognise the importance of regular reading at home in developing confident and fluent readers.

Children take home a decodable book that is carefully matched to their current phonics knowledge. This allows them to practise the GPCs and words they have already been taught in school and consolidate their learning through repeated reading.

Alongside their decodable reading book, children are encouraged to enjoy a wide range of books at home. Reading for pleasure is an important part of our approach, and we want children to develop a lifelong love of books, stories and reading.

Assessment

Children's phonics knowledge and reading development are assessed regularly throughout the year. Teachers use ongoing assessment within daily lessons to identify children's understanding and any gaps in knowledge.

More formal assessment takes place at planned points throughout the year in line with the Little Wandle assessment approach. This information is used to identify children who may need additional support and to ensure that teaching is responsive to their individual needs.

Assessment information is used to inform planning, intervention and provision so that children are supported to make strong progress.

Phonics Beyond Year 1

Although the main programme of systematic phonics teaching takes place throughout Reception and Year 1, phonics continues to be used and reinforced throughout the school.

In Year 2, children continue to develop their reading fluency and apply their phonics knowledge alongside learning spelling rules and patterns from the National Curriculum.

Where children have not yet secured the expected phonics knowledge, targeted support continues beyond Year 1. Additional phonics teaching is carefully planned around the child's individual gaps and follows the Little Wandle approach, ensuring that children receive the support they need to become confident, fluent readers.

Phonics knowledge is also reinforced through reading and writing across the wider curriculum, ensuring that children continue to apply and consolidate their skills.

Decodable Texts

Little Wandle is supported by a wide range of carefully matched, fully decodable reading books. These include fiction and non-fiction texts that are engaging, age-appropriate and designed to encourage children to develop a love of reading.

Books are selected according to the phonics knowledge children have been taught. This ensures that children are able to practise decoding independently and experience success when reading.

As children progress through the programme, the complexity of the texts and the range of vocabulary they encounter increases, supporting the development of fluency, comprehension and a rich vocabulary.

Children Who Start Their Hollyfast Journey During the School Year

When children transfer to Hollyfast Primary School during the school year, their reading and phonics ability is assessed on entry. This enables us to identify their current knowledge and understanding and ensure that their provision is appropriately mapped.

Where children have gaps in phonics, decoding, fluency or comprehension, targeted support is provided. We work to ensure that new pupils quickly become familiar with our phonics and reading approaches and are supported to make strong progress from their individual starting points.

Our aim is that every child who joins Hollyfast feels confident and supported as a reader and is given the knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to become a fluent, independent and enthusiastic reader.