Phonics and Reading at West Row Academy
Phonics
At West Row Academy, we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers – and we believe that phonics provides the foundation in supporting children to develop these skills in order for this to become achievable.
Since March 2022, we have been using the government validated systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) called ‘Little Wandle: Letters & Sounds Revised’. The programme is designed to teach children to read from Reception to Year 2, using the skill of decoding and blending sounds together to form words. The Little Wandle programme provides a full progression through all commonly occurring GPCs (sounds), working from simple to more complex, and the most commonly encountered words.
We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At West Row Academy, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
The teaching of phonics is fast-paced, and we encourage all children to actively participate in each lesson, and by encouraging the children to take ownership of their learning we are continuously striving for excellence.
At West Row Academy, we ensure that we provide all children with the fundamental skills that will enable them to be confident and fluent readers.
Reading
At West Row Academy, we recognise that reading is a tool for life. As an Academy, we want our children to enjoy reading and leave as accomplished and fluent readers.
If children at our school fall behind for any reason, we endeavour to ensure that they catch up quickly.
We further believe that every child should read confidently and fluently before they progress to the next stage of their education.