Stock image of a child reading with a torch beneath his bed covers

We believe that early reading and phonics at Kettlesing Felliscliffe Primary School, supports our children to be confident and charismatic individuals.

We have begun our journey on implementing the highly recognised Systematic, Synthetic Phonics programme ‘Little Wandle’: Letters and Sounds Revised which provides a consistent and highly effective approach to the teaching of phonics. All staff are now highly trained in the teaching and vocabulary used with Little Wandle. 'Speedy words', 'Tricky Words' and 'Shuffle Time' are just a few of the consistent phrases we are now using with our children. 

With Early Reading and Phonics, a priority within our School Development Plan, we are confident that our school is well resourced for the teaching and learning of 'Little Wandle’ using the systematic reading of 'Big Cat Collins' phonics books for our younger learners.

Within our new guided reading curriculum we will be developing children to explore and find meaning in texts. A lot of time is spent discussing the books we are reading to ensure new vocabulary is developed. Children enjoy discussing challenging texts with their teachers and support each other in order to understand the text fully, using our comprehension skills of recall, inference, prediction and summarising.

Reading for Pleasure at Kettlesing Felliscliffe is what we encourage daily for our children to develop a love of reading. We teach children to see books as a way to learn and explore new concepts. We ensure our classroom environments have a strong focus on reading; using high quality texts, inviting reading areas and opportunities for children to stretch imaginations through author visits and experiences using expressive art forms such as dance, drama and role play.

Reading at home is an important part of wider learning at Kettlesing Felliscliffe. Children take a reading book home every day so that they can read their books to themselves and with their families. These books are carefully selected so that children are reading books which challenge them at the level they are working at.  We encourage our parents to make a comment in their child’s Home Reading Record, so that their teachers can see what children have been reading at home.

How can I support my child’s reading at home?

There are many different ways you can support your child’s reading at home. We ask parents to read with their children for at least 10 minutes a day and within this time, ask them questions about the text they are reading.

We also encourage families to spend time visiting the local library and purchasing books and role play materials that follow their child’s interests whether this be based around fictional characters or a non-fiction text.

Parent workshops also ensure parents and families are given the right skills and training to support their child’s reading at home.