Phonics and Early Reading

At Broom Leys Primary School we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers, and we believe that Phonics provides the foundations in supporting children to develop these skills in order for this to become achievable.

We use a systematic synthetic phonics scheme to teach reading: the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Phonics programme, which is a DFE accredited phonics teaching programme. 

How we teach phonics

  • In EYFS and Year 1, children follow the progression within the programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
  • Phonics starts in EYFS in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
  • By the end of EYFS, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
  • By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
  • EYFS lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
  • Year 1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
  • In the first half of the Autumn term, phonic lessons are taught daily in Year 2 to complete the programme when necessary.
  • Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support (in EYFS, Year 1), 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.
  • Any children in Years 2, 3 and 4 that have gaps in their phonic knowledge receive short, sharp lessons using the Rapid Catch-up These lessons last 15-20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.

There is a very helpful resources page for parents which will help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school and feel confident about supporting their reading at home.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/