English

At All Saints we want all pupils to benefit from a consistent and systematic approach to the teaching of phonics from entry to school. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds to structure and deliver our teaching of phonics, alongside high-quality reading experiences, to ensure that every child becomes a reader.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is a systematic approach for teaching children to read using phonics. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting school, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.

Intent

At All Saints Babbacombe, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.

We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.

At All Saints Babbacombe, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Here at All Saints Babbacombe, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure.

Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose. Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Phonics Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2:

• We teach phonics for 20-25 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
• Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:

Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.

Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Children in Year 2 review Phase 5 GPCs and continue to develop their fluency and accuracy.

Teaching reading:

Reading practice sessions three times a week:

We teach children (Reception and Y1) to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children to use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using Little Wandle assessments and book matching grids. These are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis. 

Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

Decoding: teaching children to apply their knowledge of letter-sound relationships (GPCs) to correctly pronounce written words,

Prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression,

Comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

In Reception these sessions start in Week 4 of the Autumn term. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

In Year 2 onwards we continue to teach reading in this way for any child who still needs practise reading with decodable books.

For children in Year 2 onwards, who have secure phonics knowledge but are not quite at the fluency and comprehension age related levels, we support them through the Herts reading fluency intervention programme.

Impact

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

Assessment for learning is used:

• daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
• weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

Summative assessment is used:

• every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
• by the Phonics lead, English lead and SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.

Children not on track in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as through the half-termly Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Rapid Catch Up assessments.

Phonics Progression Document

Year One National Phonics Screening Check

Children in Year One take part in an individual Phonics Screening Check in the Summer term. We do our best to make the children feel at ease during this time and just concentrate on doing their best. This academic year the Phonics Screening Check will take place on the Week commencing Monday 12 June 2023. We appreciate your child’s full attendance during these times. 

Please note, that if any pupil did not sit or did not pass their phonics screening check in Year 1, they will be required to take the phonics screening check the following year in Year 2 during the Summer term.

Phonics Screening Check StructurePhonics Screening Check ExamplePhonics Glossary Document

Intent

Our English curriculum is based upon a language rich experience for pupils combining opportunities to speak, listen, read and write for a variety of purposes audiences and forms. When considering the reading curriculum progression, it should be read in conjunction with the writing progression as the development of these skills are not separate but part of a cohesive language rich programme. Our reading curriculum is based upon the selection of high quality, engaging texts, that provide rich models of language. These texts are mapped into our termly and half termly curriculum progression frameworks for each year group. Teachers seek, at all times, opportunities to make links between reading and writing explicit.

We are determined that:

• Every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities.
• All pupils, including the weakest readers, make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age related expectations.
• Children are able to develop vocabulary, language comprehension, and a love of reading through stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction.
• Children are familiar with, and enjoy listening to, a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction.
• The Phonics Programme (Little Wandle) matches or exceeds the expectations of the national curriculum and the Early Learning Goals.
• All staff have clear expectations of pupils’ phonics progress term by term, from EYFS to Year 6 as appropriate. Pupils are provided with phonics support in KS2 according to need.
• The sequence of reading books shows cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that is matched closely to the school’s phonics programme. Children have access to phonetically decodable books through Little Wandle. Accelerated Reader is used in KS2 but Little Wandle books are allocated to match the needs of individual learners.
• Teachers will give pupils sufficient practice in reading and re-reading books that match the grapheme-phoneme correspondences they know, both in school and at home.
• Reading, including the teaching of systematic, synthetic phonics, is taught from the beginning of Reception.
• Ongoing assessment of pupils’ phonics progress is sufficiently frequent and detailed to identify any pupil who is falling behind the programme’s pace. If they do fall behind, targeted support is given immediately.
• All staff have regular training in the teaching of phonics and reading to ensure confidence and competence.
• The Re-think Reading scheme will be used to systematically improve children’s ability to read and respond to texts and will match the reading skills concisely and consistently.
• Children are exposed to a breadth of high-quality texts during the writing teaching sequences which includes text analysis and deconstruction with rich opportunities for collaborative, and independent writing.
• Children are exposed to vocabulary in the wider curriculum to enhance knowledge and secure a rich language culture.

Implementation

• Well-chosen and engaging curriculum texts and for reading for pleasure links.
• Links made across the curriculum using high quality texts and genres (e.g. newspaper reports, non-fiction texts)
• Involvement in World Book Day/National Storytelling Week/World Poetry Day reading activities to share a love of books.
• Sharing books/stories in assemblies.
• Parental engagement and involvement – reading at home 
• Reading champions to develop opportunities for reading for pleasure.
• Reading buddies – Y6+Y1, EYFS+Y5
• Reading Den on the school playground
• Reading resources in classrooms updated frequently to provide children with a wide-range of reading material.
• Sharing of books to encourage a wider exposure to books.
• Daily reading by classroom adults both ‘to’ and ‘with’ the children.
• Accelerated Reader roll-out in KS2 encourages reading and allows children to see their own progress and achievements in reading - linked to assembly with certificates of achievement

Impact

As a result, we are building a community of enthusiastic readers who enjoy showcasing their ever-developing skills. They are confident to take risks in their reading and love to discuss and share their ideas. Reading at home has started to flourish as children love the books that they are reading and enjoy sharing these beyond school. A rich language culture is being developed across the school and children have begun to talk confidently about Reading.

All Saints Babbacombe Reading Progression DocumentAll Saints Babbacombe Primary School Rethink Reading Progression

Intent

Our English curriculum is based upon a language rich experience for pupils combining opportunities to speak, listen, read and write for a variety of purposes audiences and forms. When considering the writing curriculum progression, it should be read in conjunction with the reading progression as the development of these skills are not separate but part of a cohesive language rich programme. Our writing curriculum is based upon the selection of high quality, engaging texts, that provide rich models of language. These texts are mapped into our termly and half termly curriculum progression frameworks for each year group. Teachers seeks at all times opportunities to make links between reading and writing explicit.

At All Saints Babbacombe we seek to ensure that:

• Children have the ability to write with fluency and each has an author’s voice.
• Children are writing for a purpose and their writing is engaging; they think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this.
• Children develop writing from high quality text models and worked examples.
• Children develop proficiency in writing in a range of genres and have a sophisticated bank of vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description.
• Opportunities for writing purposefully are developed through other areas of the curriculum and beyond the school.
• Children develop writing stamina.
• Children are motivated to re-read, edit and improve their writing so every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.
• Children display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated and spelt correctly.

Implementation

Writing at All Saints Babbacombe involves the use of Babcock teaching sequences across all Year groups. These sequences support our writing Curriculum. Each teaching sequence is based around a high quality, well-chosen text and follows a three-part structure: Learning About the Text, Practising Writing and Independent Writing.

Each sequence begins with an elicitation task which informs the planning sequence. The writing is analysed and the sequence adapted in light of the children's needs. Each sequence has a clearly identified outcome. Each year group will undertake two writing focused sequences each half term. We have carefully chosen a selection of narrative, non-fiction and poetry-based texts to study.      

Children will use the writerly knowledge that they build up with their class teacher through a unit of work and then apply this to their own writing - ensuring that age related grammatical features are taught and implemented. We provide daily opportunities to write with meaning and purpose.

In the Early Years, writing is developed through both focused teaching and opportunities for practice within continuous provision. Throughout the year teachers will ensure that the children are exposed to the different stages of the writing sequence above to ensure a smooth transition into Key Stage 1.

Impact

The impact of our writing curriculum and carefully crafted, well taught lessons with appropriate and ongoing feedback for each child can be seen in the progress that children make in their books. As a result, we are building a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy skills. Children are becoming more confident to take risks in their writing, are building their flow, flair and control, and love to discuss and share their ideas.