English

Early Reading and Phonics

At Church Langton C of E Primary School, we believe that reading is one of the most important skills a child will learn. We are committed to ensuring every child becomes a confident, fluent reader and writer, opening the door to lifelong learning and enjoyment. Through high-quality phonics teaching, we provide children with the foundations they need to successfully decode, read and write with confidence.

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, delivering a consistent and systematic approach to phonics teaching from Reception onwards. Alongside developing strong reading skills, we place great importance on language development, recognising that speaking and listening underpin success in reading and writing across the curriculum. A downloadable information sheet is available at the bottom of this page.

Intent

At Church Langton Primary School, our aim is for every child to become a fluent and enthusiastic reader. We begin teaching phonics as soon as children start Reception, following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to ensure a structured progression of learning.

Children are taught to:

Recognise and say phonemes (sounds)
Identify the common spellings of sounds
Blend sounds to read words
Segment words into sounds for spelling
Apply their phonics knowledge across reading and writing

We strive to create confident learners who actively participate in lessons and take pride in their progress. Through daily teaching and a consistent whole-school approach, children are supported to achieve their full potential as readers and writers.

Implementation

Daily Phonics Teaching

Children in Reception and Year 1 take part in daily phonics lessons, with teaching beginning within the first weeks of joining school.

The Little Wandle programme provides:

Direct and engaging teaching in short, focused sessions
A consistent approach across the school
A secure and systematic progression through phonics knowledge
A fast-paced curriculum that maintains momentum
Frequent opportunities for repetition and practice
Reading books carefully matched to children's phonics knowledge
Early identification of pupils requiring additional support

Reading Practice Sessions

Alongside daily phonics lessons, children participate in regular reading practice sessions using fully decodable books matched to the sounds they have already learnt. This helps children build fluency, confidence and comprehension.

Supporting Older Pupils

Any child beyond Year 1 who requires further phonics support receives targeted intervention to help them catch up quickly. Assessments identify any gaps in learning so that support can be carefully tailored to individual needs, ensuring every child is given the opportunity to become a successful reader.

Impact

Our systematic approach to phonics ensures children develop the skills and confidence needed to become fluent readers.

By the time children leave Church Langton C of E Primary School, they are equipped with the reading skills needed to access the wider curriculum and enjoy reading independently. They can discuss books thoughtfully, recommend texts to others and use reading as a tool for lifelong learning.

We believe that strong phonics teaching lays the foundation for future success, helping children become confident communicators and enthusiastic readers.

Assessment

Assessment is an integral part of our phonics provision and enables us to quickly identify children who may need additional support.

Assessment takes place through:

Daily observations during lessons
Regular review sessions to identify and address misconceptions
Ongoing teacher assessment
Half-termly Little Wandle assessments
Monitoring by school leaders to ensure all pupils make strong progress

Statutory Assessment

Children in Year 1 complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check. Pupils who do not meet the expected standard re-take the assessment in Year 2 and receive additional support to help them succeed.

Supporting Learning at Home

Parents and carers play an important role in developing reading confidence. We encourage families to read regularly with their children and make use of the phonics resources shared by school. By working together, we can help children develop a love of reading that lasts a lifetime.

Reading

Reading at School

We pride ourselves on our strong reading culture at our school. Reading is at the very heart of our curriculum. Our English lessons are centred around a range of high-quality children’s books. We link spoken language, reading and writing in order that children can become more confident in all areas of the curriculum.

Reading is taught throughout the school and develops from phonological awareness and understanding in Reception through to guided reading and reading comprehension in Year 6. Below you can find a map of the reading journey a child will undertake through our school. Throughout this journey, the children are taught to use reading keys (please see below). These keys develop and are added to in Key Stage 2, but the key terminology and language are kept the same. This is crucial to children’s understanding of what skills are needed in order to be successful readers and decoders of texts.

Children have daily opportunities to read. At times, they read individually, in pairs, in small groups or as a whole class. The reading curriculum focusses on word reading (decoding words) and understanding of texts (comprehension). We teach these skills alongside each other. Opportunities are planned within our lessons for children to discuss what they are reading, share opinions and explore different responses to texts.

We have a lovely library where pupils can select their own books. Each classroom also has a reading area and its own stock of books for children to read.

Reading at Home

The regularity of reading at home has a significant impact on the progress and confidence a child can develop in their reading. We ask pupils to read each day, and our home school planner is used to record and share their progress. Our reading reward scheme promotes the importance of regular reading with achievements shared each week in celebration of worship.

At the bottom of this page, you'll find some helpful downloads outlining 100 recommended reads for each Key Stage.

Spelling

Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1

In this phase of school, our spelling focus is placed primarily on phonics and is embedded in conjunction with a handwriting programme. Our phonics programme is Sounds-Write, which is carried out on a daily basis with children.

Reception have reading books linked to their phonics learning. Within these books there are phonics sounds which children can work on at home and practice. Year One are also given phonics sounds to work on. Lists of these words can be requested from your class teacher. Year Two will also be given out phonics sounds depending on their specific needs.

KS2

At our school, we focus on common spelling rules and the different spelling patterns for sounds that the children will encounter. This builds upon their previous phonics learning and allows them to have a knowledge of wider patterns as well as words that are an exception to the common rules. The children work on a different pattern every week with each year group having the same pattern so that words and lists can be re-visited, built upon and added to as the children progress in proficiency. Children explore these patterns through investigative tasks which allow them to develop a curiosity about spelling and provides them opportunities to make links and apply these spelling patterns in their wider work.

Writing

Throughout the children’s journey at our school, they will learn to write in a variety of ways and will then be asked to apply their knowledge across all areas of the curriculum. Children are taught to think about the purpose of their writing and what audience they are writing for. In key stage 1, children start by learning how to entertain and inform with their writing before being introduced to persuasive purposes in year 3. By year 5 and 6 they will also have the ability to write texts which discuss concepts with an audience. All these purposes allow the children to explore the different genres of writing which achieve these. The writing curriculum at our school allows children to engage with new text types whilst also ensuring they revisit and build upon prior learning in order to reach improved levels of sophistication in all elements of composition. Grammar is interwoven into the teaching of writing and, when appropriate, certain features will be highlighted as important to achieve an intended outcome with an audience. Grammar may also be taught discreetly before the children are shown how to incorporate their new skill within their wider work. Writing opportunities are often also linked to class texts so that children have a fluency with the concept they are writing about and an enthusiasm to incorporate their knowledge of a story or structure.