Phonics at Berkeley
Little Wandle at Berkeley Primary School
Phonics is the name given to the process of learning the sounds, names and shapes of the letters that make up the English language. There are 44 different sounds, made up of singular or groups of letters. Some of these sounds then have a variety of ways of writing them down.
We buy our Nursery and Reception children a Nursery Rhyme book and set them a challenge to learn some rhymes as part of their induction to the school. Rhymes are an important step in learning to read; they extend vocabulary, have rhyming words, actions, patterns and rhythms.
Reception and Year 1 are taught phonics daily following Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression. We use decodable texts to embed the learning of phonics into reading development.
Children in Reception are taught handwriting and letter formation alongside their phonic learning. Children are taught the Little Wandle Rhymes to support the correct letter formation.
Vocabulary
There is some key vocabulary that both children and adults use:
Phoneme – the smallest unit of sound a letter, or group of letters makes.
Grapheme – the written shape of a phoneme
Digraphs and Trigraphs – two or three letters making one sound
Blend – two or more sounds said closely together e.g. spl, fl, xt, ump
Information and Help for Parents and Carers
The resources on the Little Wandle webpage 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.
please click on the following link to find out more
Little Wandle Website - Parent Support
Reading Practice Sessions
Children in Reception and Year 1 read fully decodable books with an adult at least 3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions.
These books are then sent home for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their parents/carers.
These 3 reading practice sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension.
Our reading books in Reception and Y1 are Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books.
Supporting your child with reading
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 bring home in Reception and Year 1: Reading practice book and Reading for Pleasure book
Reading Practice Books
This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s 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 – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, ask them to decode (sound it out) and blend it. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Reading for Pleasure Book or Library Book
In order to encourage your child to become a passionate lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The Reading for Pleasure book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. In addition, after reading the book you can pick out some words and help them to expand their vocabulary by discussing alternatives for these words. The main thing that you have fun!
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
Children in Year 1 take part in an individual Phonics Screening Check in the Summer term. We appreciate your child’s full attendance during these times.
Please note, that if any pupil did not sit or did not pass their phonics screening check in Year 1, they will be required to undertake the screning in Year 2 in the Summer term.
The following information has been taken from the DFE website
What is the phonics screening check?
The phonics screening check contains 40 words divided into two sections of 20 words. Both sections contain a mixture of real words and pseudo-words.
Pseudo-words are words that are phonically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning. They are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using their phonics skills.
All pseudo-words in the check are accompanied by a picture of an imaginary creature. Children are taught that when a word has a creature next to it, it is a pseudo-word. This ensures that they are not trying to match the pseudo-word to a word in their vocabulary.
The check is designed to give teachers information on how your child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether your child needs additional support at this stage, so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill.
Do I need to do anything to prepare my child for the check?
Phonics works best when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and books. Parents play a very important part in helping with this.
You can highlight the phonics sounds when you read with your child. Teaching how sounds match with letters is likely to start with individual letters such as ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ and will then move on to two-letter sounds such as ‘ee’, ‘ch’ and ‘ck’.
With all books, encourage your child to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds together from left to right rather than looking at the pictures to guess. Once your child has read an unfamiliar word, you can talk about what it means and help them to follow the story.
Your child’s teacher will also be able to suggest books with the right level of phonics for your child. These books are often called ‘decodable readers’ because the story is written with words made up of the letters your child has learnt. Your child will be able to work out new words from their letters and sounds, rather than just guessing.
Most schools use book bags and a reading record, which is a great way for teachers and parents to communicate about what children have read. The reading record can tell you whether your child has enjoyed a particular book and shows problems or successes they have had, either at home or at school.
How will the results be used?
Schools will have access to all their pupils’ results to identify those who need additional support and make plans to help them improve.
The Department for Education does not publish school-level results for the phonics screening check, but schools will have access to national, regional and local authority results to allow them to benchmark their pupils’ performance.
Will I receive feedback on my child’s results?
Your child’s teacher will share your child’s score with you in the second half of the summer term.
If your child has found it difficult, the school should tell you what support they have put in place to help your child improve. You might like to ask how you can support your child to take the next steps in reading.
Children who have not met the standard in year 1 will re-take the phonics screening check in year 2. The results of any re-take will also be shared with you.
Further information
Your child’s teacher will be able to answer any questions about the phonics screening check.