Phonics and Early Reading

little wandle sticker.PNG

The teaching of early reading at Mount Carmel

At Mount Carmel, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sound Revised as our phonics and early reading programme. This is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which has been validated by the Department for Education. The scheme enables teachers to support children in developing their phonics knowledge, in order to become fluent readers. Children in Reception and Year 1 are taught daily phonics lessons and those children who require support with their reading, receive additional daily ‘keep up’ interventions that are delivered by a highly trained member of staff. To find out more about our chosen phonics programme, please visit www.littlewandlelettersandsounds..org.uk, where you will find lots of free information for parents.

Reading in school

Reading practice sessions are:

· Timetabled 3 times per week

· Taught by a trained member of staff

· Taught in small groups

The children read the same book three times in a week. The first time, we work on decoding (sounding out) the words, the second time, we focus on prosody (reading with expression) and the third time, we look at comprehension (how well the children have understood the book). We read the book three times in school because we want to develop the children’s fluency. The more children see words, the more they begin to read them automatically without having to sound them out.

Reading at home

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 your child will access at home:

A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.

A sharing book. Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

The reading practice book

This book is accessed as an ‘ebook’ via the Collins app or by visiting ops.collinsopenpage.com/ops. Your child will have their own username and password, which can be found in their reading record. Each week, your child’s class teacher will assign your child a book to read on the website. This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current phonic stage based on recent assessments. Your child should be able to read this fluently and independently. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it is ‘too easy’; your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise and celebrate their success! If they cannot read a word, read it to them. After they have finished reading, talk about the book together.

The sharing book

If children are to become lifelong readers, it is essential that they are encouraged to read for pleasure. To help foster a love of reading, children will choose a book to share and enjoy with you at home. Please note, your child is not expected to read this book independently. The book is for you to read to or with your child. Again, it is good to talk about the book with your child, but important not to turn the discussion into a test. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters