Reading is taught explicitly in group reading sessions and as part of the English/writing journey in all years in the lower school.

We teach children to read through Little Wandle reading practice sessions three times a week. The 3 sessions focus on:

🟧 decoding

🟧 prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression

🟧 comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

These sessions are delivered by a fully trained member of staff to small groups of approximately 6 children. The sessions are delivered using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds planning.

Further details:

Reading sessions:

🟧 use Big Cat books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids.

🟧 are predominantly delivered by the class teacher or a fully trained member of staff.

🟧 have 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, prosody and comprehension.

🟧 In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. 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.

Reading also features within the writing sequence on the S plans and learning journeys.

🟧 In Reception, pupils use reading of key texts in their story/text immersion. Teachers bring the text alive to develop engagement and understanding.

🟧 In Year 1 and Year 2, pupils use reading of key texts in their story/text immersion. Teachers bring the text alive to develop engagement and understanding and follow up with comprehension skill-based lessons, both both an oral and written focus (when appropriate). 

Lower School reading spines: