Joydens Wood Junior School

Phonics

Intent

At JWJS, we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Implementation

At JWJS we use the Little Wandle phonics scheme, this is the same schemed used by Joydens Wood Infant School. This ensures a strong continuation in their reading development and to give our children the best possible start with their reading and writing.

Little Wandle is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. Children who are not secure with their phonics continue to follow the Little Wandle phonics programme through a Rapid Catch-Up intervention programme, building on from the programme delivered in Key Stage One. The programme is designed for children aged 7+ and includes age appropriate reading books which are used in school to help develop excellent reading skills (including prosody, decoding and comprehension). Also, during the phonics sessions, explicit links are made between developing phonetic knowledge, reading and writing, spoken language, vocabulary, grammar and spelling.

All children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds (phonemes) in words and how those sounds can be written and applied in their writing.

Reading

The children:

• learn sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts
• learn to read words and sound blending
• read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
• work well with partners
• develop comprehension skills in stories by answering discussion-based questions 

Writing

The children:

• learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the sounds with the help of fun phrases
• learn to write words 
• learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write 

Talking

The children work in pairs so that they:

• answer every question
• practise every activity with their partner
• take turns in talking and reading to each other
• develop ambitious vocabulary

In years 3-6, interventions continue for those children with low fluency and less confidence with recognition of sounds. 

Impact

Children make rapid progress from their starting points in reading and writing. In turn, this enables children to develop a love of reading and access to the wider curriculum.