At Alverton School we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme to teach children to read and write (please see below for a variety of resources to help you support your child at home.) Phase 1 phonics sessions begin in our nursery where children are taught how to make and differentiate between sounds, as well as the fundamentals of speaking and listening. In the EYFS and KS1 (and through to LKS2 where appropriate) children continue with daily phonics lessons, using the synthetic phonics approach which teaches them the pure sounds that individual and groups of letters make. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised resources consistently across all key stages. Pupils are taught how to blend sounds together for reading and to segment them for spelling, also learning the names of individual letters.
In the earliest stages of learning to read, children develop their decoding, fluency, prosody and comprehension by reading and re-reading books from our reading scheme, Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which fully supports our chosen phonics scheme. Books are carefully matched to pupils' current knowledge to enable them to use phonics as the primary strategy to work out new words.
We ensure children are introduced to a wide range of texts through our Reading Spine based on the 5 Plagues of the Developing Reader (more information about this below) which includes a range of diverse texts which develop, and challenge, the skills of our Alverton School readers. Our Little Library of Everything contains thoughtfully selected, appropriate and engaging texts which cover important issues such as emotional well-being as well as a range of protected characteristics.
We offer our KS2 pupils access to a wide range of engaging age-appropriate books to develop their reading skills, as well as foster their love of reading. We use the Accelerated Reader programme to find their optimal reading range and to monitor and manage their independent reading practice (see below for more information).
Whilst we maintain a clear focus on giving all children the skills to read effectively, we are also committed to inspiring joy for reading in our pupils. Book Club and Read Aloud ensure that pupils are exposed to a diverse range of high quality books, stories and poems and our teachers make use of a variety of engaging texts across the curriculum. Books are taken home so that parents can help by listening to, and reading with, their children and we encourage children and parents to make use of our Woodland themed library. At Alverton School our aim is for pupils to become capable and confident readers who engage with, and enjoy, the widest possible range of reading materials.