At Barford Primary School we believe that for all our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme.

We start teaching phonics in Nursery 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 Barford Primary School 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.

A love of reading is the biggest indicator of future academic success.

^{OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development)}

At Barford Primary School, 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 Reading 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.

Foundations for phonics in Nursery

 We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:​

• sharing high-quality stories and poemso
• learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
•  activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
•  attention to high-quality language
• We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phonemecorrespondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

 

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

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 Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell wordsusing Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

 

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
 

We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 and above who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Rapid Catch-up assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Rapid Catch-up resources – at pace.

These short, sharp lessons last 15-20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.

One of the greatest gifts adults can give is to read to children.

^{Carl Sagan}