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Reading

Reading at Ranelagh

Early Reading

In EYFS and KS1, we have daily, discrete phonics lessons. As of 2024, we use Little Wandle as our SSP (Systematic Synthetic Phonics) programme. Following their phonics lesson, children then have the daily reading practice sessions to apply their decoding skills by reading a book matched to their current phonics ability. These practice sessions are vital in developing children's confidence; allowing everyone to feel that they are achieving as a reader.

The children will always have both a decodable phonics book to practise their phonics skills and a library book to share with an adult at home to grow their love of reading.

During year 1, children must sit a national phonics test called the Phonics Screening Check (PSC). The PSC is a statutory, one to one assessment for UK year 1 pupils (typically age 5-6) in June to confirm they have learned phonic decoding to an age- appropriate standard. It consists of 40 words- a mix of 20 real words and 20 pseudo words (we call these alien words)- designed to test a child's ability to sound out and blend graphemes (letters) into phonemes (sounds).

The year 1 teacher will prepare your child for this screening check. Sometimes you might be provided with additional phonics homework in the summer term to help prepare and we kindly ask that this is completed to support your child to succeed.

For more information, please read:

Phonics screening check- information for parents

Reading Fluency

Developing fluency is a key part of becoming a proficient reader and, at Ranelagh, we believe that becoming an accomplished, fluent reader is the single most important transferable skill that we can equip our pupils with.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) defines reading fluency as: The ability to apply and identify the correct pronunciation of written words immediately and without conscious effort. It involves smoothly and effortlessly decoding words while also comprehending and interpreting the text.

There are three interlinked aspects of fluent reading:

accuracy – reading words correctly
automaticity – reading words at an appropriate speed without great effort
prosody – using appropriate pace and intonation (pitch and tone to highlight an expression).

As children master their understanding of phonics and can confidently apply phase 5 sounds in decodable books at a speed of 90 words per minute, they progress onto the Little Wandle Fluency programme. During our daily 30 minute fluency lessons, we continue to develop children’s alphabetic knowledge so they can decode the new words they meet in books. It also teaches prosody and reading fluency through repeated reading activities. We develop children’s language and comprehension by chatting about each chapter. We connect to children’s background knowledge and use prosody practice and repeated reading to help children understand what they have read. Most importantly, children grow their reading stamina and enjoyment through reading books at the right level, so they are successful.

In KS2, reading is taught daily for half an hour. These sessions are either the Little Wandle Fluency programme for children who need to continue to develop their fluency or lessons teaching reading through whole novels. These novels expose all children to high quality text and new vocabulary that they otherwise would not come across. During this time, teachers and TAs model the fluency, the reading process and develop higher order reading skills, such as inference. At Ranelagh, we refer to these skills as the VIPER skills which stands for:

Rapid Catch-Up

Every child in Year 2 or above who is unable to read at age-related expectations is given targeted support so that they can access the curriculum and enjoy reading as soon as possible. At our school, children in Reception and Year 1 learn to read following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme. They apply what they learn in phonics lessons to reading books matched to their phonetic knowledge.

The Rapid Catch-up programme mirrors the core Little Wandle programme but children learn at a much faster pace. The Rapid Catch-up programme has been carefully designed for children aged 7 and above to catch up quickly.