At Heathfields Infant Academy, we use the phonics programme 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised'.

To ensure children make a strong start, the teaching of phonics begins on Week 2 of the Autumn term. From this point children will have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised and this continues throughout the school to ensure children become fluent readers.

Half-termly assessments take place throughout Reception to help inform future teaching and identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practise. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention. These interventions are led by trained members of staff. 

Reading Practise Sessions

Children in Reception read fully decodable books with an adult 3 times per week during our Reading Practise sessions. 

These 3 reading practise sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension. Our reading books in Reception are 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books'. These books are also shared with home each day so that children can continue to practise their reading parents/carers. 

Please visit the Little Wandle website which has lots of information on how to support your child with phonics at home https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents

Reading for pleasure

We recognise the importance of reading for pleasure in the Early Years. We know that if children experience early shared reading they are more likely to continue to read as they grow up. The curriculum for the Early Years has been carefully considered, ensuring that children experience a breadth of texts from different genres and authors. This is carefully reflected on at the end of each year to ensure that the text list reflects new releases. 

Each reception classroom has a carefully considered class library that includes a range of high-quality texts for children to engage with. Many of these books are familiar to the children and have been read aloud in class. We work with nurseries to ensure texts that have been shared there become the foundation for the class libraries in the Autumn term. Opportunities to engage with reading is also incorporated into our outside area.

Story times are planned into every school day, with every child having a vote for the book they wish to read that day.

Weekly 'book clubs' are planned so that children have an opportunity to talk about the 'read for pleasure' book they borrowed that week, sharing their likes and dislikes and beginning to make recommendations to their friends.  During this time, the teacher will also recommend a new 'read of the week'.