At Whoberley Hall, our aim is to help children read to fluently and confidently, enabling them to develop in to life-long readers.  We aim to equip them with skills and experiences that enable them to find pleasure from reading for the rest of their lives.

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Whoberley Hall we believe that all of our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Whoberley Hall, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Comprehension

At Whoberley Hall we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Reading Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

Key Skills

We are ambitious and set high expectations for the children at our school.  We are determined that through our rigorous phonics teaching and assessment, every child will finish Year 1 as a fluent, confident reader and having developed a love for reading. At the end of KS1, children will have developed the skills and confidence to read a variety of text types and by being introduced to the VIPERS acronym, children have regular exposure to a range of questions linked to the Key Stage 1 content domains for reading.  By the end of KS2, children are proficient at reading and interrogating a variety of text types.  They are able to discuss and explore comprehension questions linked to these texts and by using the VIPERS acronym consistently throughout KS2, they become experts at comprehending these texts.   We aim for every child to leave our school able to decipher and comprehend a range of text types as well as leaving with a genuine love for reading.

For really helpful videos and further guidance for parents and carers, please click here to take you to the Little Wandle website.