At Feniscowles, we are fully committed to the delivery of excellence in the teaching of Phonics and Early Reading.

As a school we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme to teach phonics and early reading.

Through our high-quality, discrete phonics teaching, we ensure children develop the skills and knowledge that they need in order to recognise sounds, decode words and become confident and fluent readers. We believe that this, combined with a text-rich learning environment, promotes a ‘love of reading’ culture where children enjoy reading.

We recognise that reading is an important life skill, providing a secure foundation from an early age, where children can gain access and have more opportunities to achieve in all areas of the curriculum.

How Do We Teach Phonics and Early Reading At Feniscowles?
In EYFS and Year 1 the children will have a phonics session daily and a reading practise session three times per week. For our very youngest learners, this begins in our second full week at school. The phonics lesson is accessed by all and gradually increases in time increments as the children get older. Whilst one class receives their phonics lesson, the other has their reading practise sessions and then vice-versa. In the reading practice session, children read phonetically decodable books at their level in a small, adult-guided group. This enables the children to directly apply their taught phonics to reading in books. Each Reading practise session has a particular focus: word reading, prosody or comprehension. As children move into year 2, they continue with this model progressing onto chapter books once their reading speed and comprehension are secure. We call this "Little Wandle Fluency." During the latter stages of the summer term in year 2, we introduce our children to the "Ready Steady Read Together" model - which is what we use in the junior building. This is in order to support a strong transition from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2. 

At Feniscowles, we strive to ensure that all children become successful and fluent readers by the end of KS1. Further curriculum documentation for phonics, including our school policy, can be found at the bottom of this page.

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Results

Pass Mark (out of 40)

EYFS Phonics and Reading Parent Workshop

• PPT for parent workshop EYFS

Supporting Your Children With Phonics Homework

We created this video to show in our parent workshops. Here, Miss Dootson is acting in the role of a parent or family member to show how to complete the phonics homework in EYFS. 

• Parent Support Click here to access the "For Parents" section of the Little Wandle website.