Phonics and Reading

Phonics at Our Lady and St Edward’s Catholic Primary School

At Our Lady and St Edward’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that strong reading skills are essential for every child’s success. Reading underpins the whole curriculum and greatly influences pupils’ progress. To become confident readers, children need a clear and consistent method for decoding unfamiliar words. This is achieved through the teaching of phonics. Regular and systematic phonics practice supports pupils in developing accuracy, fluency and long-term confidence in reading.

Our Approach to Phonics

Our school follows the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, a validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) scheme. Phonics is taught daily in Reception and Year 1, with frequent review and repetition of previously learned Grapheme–Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs). Revisiting this knowledge daily, weekly and termly helps secure learning in pupils’ long-term memory. This structured approach ensures that all children develop strong foundations in reading, writing and language.

We aim for children to become fluent readers as quickly and securely as possible, enabling them to progress from learning to read to reading to learn. Pupils who require additional support are identified promptly and receive targeted “keep-up” sessions to help them remain on track with their peers.

Reading Books Sent Home

Ongoing assessment helps us match children with books that reflect their current phonics knowledge. Each week, pupils take home:

• A fully decodable reading book, carefully matched to the phonics they have secured, allowing them to read independently and confidently.

• A sharing book, which is not fully decodable, for you to enjoy reading with or to your child. These books broaden vocabulary, enrich story language and foster a love of reading.

Both types of books play an important role in developing confident, enthusiastic and capable readers.

Supporting Phonics at Home

 A link to the Little Wandle website, together with a number of supportive resources, can be found below.

These include pronunciation guides, information videos and other helpful materials to support you in practising phonics with your child at home.