Phonics and Early Reading
At Totley All Saints, we are deeply passionate about ensuring every child receives the very best start in life. We believe that nurturing a lifelong love of reading is at the heart of this journey. Reading opens doors to knowledge, imagination, and endless possibilities, empowering children to thrive academically and personally.
Our dedicated team is committed to creating a warm, supportive environment where children discover the joy of stories, develop strong language skills, and build confidence in her abilities. Through engaging and carefully crafted reading experiences, we inspire our pupils to become enthusiastic, fluent readers who are curious about the world around them.
We know that the foundation laid in these early years shapes not only academic success but also a child's sense of identity and love of learning. At Totley All Saints, every day is an opportunity to ignite this passion and help every child flourish - in body, mind, heart, and spirit.
We’re very proud of our practice in early reading and follow the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds’ Phonics scheme which is accredited by the DfE.
What is Phonics?
Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write and helps them hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.
Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how the letters sound when they are combined helps children to decode words as they read. Understanding phonics also helps children know which letters to use when they are writing words.
Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters.
For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch.
Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out. Similarly, children are taught to listen for the sounds making up words and to segment them for spelling.
For example, when a child is taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, they can start to build up the words: “tap”, “taps”, “pat”, “pats” and “sat”.
Some words which are high in frequency but use less common phoneme-grapheme correspondences are taught to children as 'tricky words' or 'common exception words' to ensure that words such as said, was and of can be easily recognised and used.
The Curriculum:
Phonics is taught as a daily 30 minute lesson in Reception, Y1 & also going into Y2. Pupils who need additional support with their phonics in Key Stage Two also attend daily phonics sessions. Pupils are placed into a ‘phonics group’ based on the phase of phonics they are currently on.
Little Wandle Letters & Sounds:
Learning the sounds of the English language is a vital step in developing confident readers and writers who can express themselves. We use the systematic synthetic scheme for teaching phonics, called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. This carefully sequenced programme offers a structured evidence-based approach that teaches pupils the essential grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), in a logical sequence, enabling them to decode and encode words effectively. It incorporates bite-sized, incremental teaching steps that support dialy success for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils, consistent with our visions to provide success for every child.
The programme provides age-appropriate materials and differentiated teaching pathways, which are particularly beneficial for older pupils who require catch-up support, ensuring no child is left behind in their freading journey. The fidelity to the prgramme's approach reduces confusion and maximises progress, supporting staff in delivering hih-quality phonics teaching with clarity and consistency.
Furthermore, Little Wandle supports the development of reading fluency and comprehension by integrating vocabulary development and morphology, which is essential for pupils to understand and engage with wider curriculum content.
In line with our school improvement priority to embed new reading structures and support all pupils, particularly those with SEN needs, Little Wandle's comprehensive training and resources empower our staff to deliver phonics with confidence and expertise, ensuring rapid progress and a love of reading for every pupil.
Correct pronunciation of GPCs is an essential step in decoding success. Please watch the videos on the site below to support your child with this. To access the full site, please go to
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Early Reading
Children begin to learn book handling skills and to participate in 'book talk' in their first term at school by reading wordless books. They will find pictures showing initial sounds of words (e.g. something that begins with 's'), and practice oral blending (such as finding a picture to match s-i-t). When they are ready to blend simple words by recognising the graphemes, saying the sounds they make and blending them into a word, they will begin to use decodable books which reinforce blending sounds to make words (such as in, at, sat, pin). Once they are decoding with confidence, they will move onto books with more than one word per page and their books will match their current phonics attainment as shown by the assessment information we regularly make for each child. Books are organised into phases to match the SSP programme and within each phase they may be several sets of books.
Reading is taught in small groups, with books carefully matched to individual needs. Children read a minimum of 3 times a week using the following structure:
Day 1 - Decode to practice blending the words in the book
Day 2 - Prosody to practice reading with greater automaticity and fluency
Day 3 - Comprehension to discuss the content of the book.
How We Teach Reading Across Our School
At Totley All Saints, our journey to literacy begins with fostering a genuine love of books. We believe that regular storytime and opportunties for reading for pleasure are the foundation of confident, enthusiastic readers. Building on this, we deliver carefully structured reading lessons that develop fluency, enabling pupils to read texts with expression and good prosody.
Our approach includes regular fluency instruction, extended reading sessions that help children become familiar with a broad range of language and text structures, enriching their vocabulary and understanding. Through close reading, pupils explore the thoughtful langugae choices of authors and delve into characters' actions, feelings, and motivations, deepening their comprehension and critical thinking.
Together, these elements nurture lifelong readers who not only deccode words but also engage meaningfully with texts, embodying our vision of excellence for every child.
Click here to see a brief overview of books and skills for each year group
TAS Reading Curriculum Progression
Scarborough's Reading Rope as a way to organise the curriculum
Our text planners show the language features and vocabulary of our book study texts.
