English

Phonics and Early Reading

Welcome to our phonics and early reading page where, you will find information on how we teach children to read and write, developing confident and fluent readers for life.   Our Early Reading Lead is Mr Johnson. 

Our Approach to Phonics

We use a high-quality, systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a complete and rigorous programme that is fully resourced and has been validated by the Department for Education. 

Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 receive a minimum of 20 minutes of high-quality phonics teaching every day. Sessions are engaging and interactive, including physical and auditory practice to help sounds stick in children’s minds.

Little Wandle is built on an aspirational yet achievable progression, designed to help children move from learning to read, to reading to learn, as quickly as possible. This gives them access to the wide world of knowledge and literature. 

What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics?

Synthetic phonics teaches children to read by breaking words down into their individual sounds (phonemes). They then learn to match these sounds to letters or groups of letters (graphemes) and blend them together to read the whole word. 

For example, when reading the word 'cat', a child would learn to:

• Identify the three phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/
• Match these to their corresponding graphemes: 'c', 'a', 't'
• Blend them together to read the word: 'c-a-t' 

The Little Wandle scheme provides a detailed progression for teaching phonemes, graphemes, and tricky words, starting in Phase 1 and continuing through to Phase 5.  An explanation of each phase can be found here.

How can you help at home?

You are your child's most important reading role model. Here are some simple ways you can support their reading journey:

• Use the resources: You can find a wealth of resources, including videos on how to pronounce sounds, on the Little Wandle website.
• Listen to them read: When your child brings a book home, encourage them to use their phonic knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.
• Read aloud to them: Sharing a story is a special time. Reading a wide variety of books to your child exposes them to a broader vocabulary and a love of stories.
• Talk about the text: Discuss the pictures, characters, and events in the story to build their comprehension skills. 

By working together, we can ensure every child develops into a confident, fluent, and enthusiastic reader.

Keeping All Children on Track: Our 'Keep-up' and 'Catch-up' Programmes

While our Little Wandle phonics programme is designed to ensure every child learns to read, we recognise that some pupils will need additional, targeted support. Our robust approach to keeping children on track ensures that any potential gaps are addressed swiftly and effectively. 

Daily 'Keep-up' Support for Reception and Year 1

We use the Little Wandle assessments to quickly identify any child who is at risk of falling behind the expected pace of our phonics programme.

For children who need it, a short, focused 'keep-up' session is delivered daily in addition to the main phonics lesson. 

These lessons use the same familiar Little Wandle procedures, resources, and memorable mantras as the whole-class teaching. The key difference is that the steps are smaller and there is more repetition to help the learning stick.

We continually assess and monitor children's progress. As soon as a child has secured their learning, they will move back into the whole-class session. 

'Rapid Catch-up' for Year 2 and Key Stage 2

For older children (Year 2 and above) who are not reading at age-related expectations, or, who may have transferred from a different education system, we use the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme. This is a complete programme designed for those aged 7 and above to accelerate their progress.

Rapid Catch-up mirrors the core Little Wandle programme but is taught at a faster pace. The lessons are short, sharp, and focused on addressing specific gaps in phonics knowledge.

The programme is embedded in daily reading practice using age-appropriate decodable books from the Little Wandle 7+ range. This ensures that older children have the chance to grow their language and become fluent readers using texts that match their growing maturity.

Children are assessed at the end of the programme to check they have gained enough fluency and accuracy to exit the Rapid Catch-up programme and return to their regular reading groups. 

Little Wandle SEND Programme

For pupils with complex special educational needs (SEND), we provide further, more specific support.

The Little Wandle SEND programme is a complete, adapted programme for learners who require specific adaptations to the teaching steps because of complex needs. Resources mirror the core Little Wandle programme but are broken down into smaller steps to support a graduated approach. The programme aims to ensure that all children can become confident readers, using the same systematic approach as the core program but tailored to meet individual needs.

How We Teach Reading at Endeavour Academy

At Endeavour Academy, we want every child to become a confident, fluent reader who develops a genuine love of books. Our approach follows a clear progression from early phonics using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme to advanced fluency and comprehension.  Our aim is that every child not only learns to read but chooses to read—developing the confidence and enthusiasm needed for success across the curriculum and beyond.

Reception and Year 1: Learning to Read through Little Wandle “Reading Squads”

In Reception and Year 1, children learn to read through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, which teaches phonics in a clear, systematic sequence—from simple to more complex sounds—to help children build strong early decoding skills. All graphemes are practised in words, sentences and fully decodable books, and children revisit and review previously taught content regularly to secure it in long‑term memory.

Children take part in small group reading practice sessions, known in school as Reading Squads. Each group reads a fully decodable book that contains only the sounds the children have already been taught, ensuring they can apply their phonics securely without needing to guess or rely on pictures. Books are carefully matched to each child’s phonics stage so every reader can experience success and build confidence.

Across the week, each group reads the same book three times, with each session focusing on a different aspect of reading:

• Read 1 – Decoding: Children practise sounding out (segmenting) and blending to read words accurately.
• Read 2 – Prosody (expression): Children learn how to read with expression, intonation and phrasing, developing understanding of meaning and how a text should “sound.”
• Read 3 – Comprehension: Children discuss the book—characters, events, vocabulary and ideas—building deeper understanding and early comprehension skills.

This repeated‑reads structure gives children the practice they need to develop accuracy, fluency and understanding in manageable steps.

The aim of the Reading Squad approach is to move children quickly from learning to read to reading to learn, giving them the secure phonics foundation they need to access more complex texts later on. Through daily phonics, structured small‑group reading sessions and revisiting learning frequently, children develop the accuracy, fluency and confidence needed for the next stage of their reading journey.

Year 2 and Year 3: Developing Fluency with Little Wandle

From Year 2 onwards, children move beyond learning to decode and begin developing full reading fluency. At this stage, children who have completed the Little Wandle phonics programme (typically reading around 60–70 words per minute by the end of Year 1) progress into the Little Wandle Fluency pathway, which supports them in becoming confident, expressive and efficient readers.

Children work with texts that have been carefully levelled to support the move from accurate reading to confident, expressive fluency. These books are specifically written to ensure that pupils can practise key fluency skills in a structured way.

Fluency lessons include activities that Little Wandle identifies as having the greatest impact on reading progress, such as:

• Echo reading – the adult models expressive reading; children repeat
• Rehearsed reading – reading a section several times to build fluency
• Emotion reading – experimenting with tone and expression to convey meaning
• Marking up the text for prosody – adding pauses, emphasis, or intonation cues

These approaches help children move past merely “getting the words right” and begin reading with meaning and confidence. Through carefully chosen texts, explicit fluency strategies and repeated reading, children develop the skills to read smoothly, accurately and expressively. This ensures that reading becomes a gateway to deeper comprehension and enjoyment—supporting their learning across all subjects as they move through school.

Year 4 and Beyond

In Year 4 and beyond reading is taught daily through a structured whole‑class guided reading model. Lessons follow a five‑day cycle that includes modelling, vocabulary exploration, comprehension practice and reading for pleasure. Pupils learn to use a wide range of comprehension strategies linked to the national content domains, supported by high‑quality texts and explicit teacher modelling. This includes:

• Daily 25‑minute guided reading sessions with a clear domain (“Reading Gem”) focus.
• A balanced mix of Define, Retrieve, Infer, Predict, Summarise, Explore, Relate and Compare style questions.
• Structured modelling using skills ladders and worked examples.
• Independent application tasks and targeted stretch for higher‑attaining pupils.
• A dedicated reading‑for‑pleasure session every week to nurture a lifelong love of books.

This progressive approach to reading is deliberately designed to ensure that every child not only learns to read but develops the confidence, independence and enthusiasm to read widely and often—opening doors to learning across the curriculum and beyond.

Writing at Our School: The Write Stuff Approach

Welcome to our writing page, where you will find information about how we teach children to become confident, skilled, and enthusiastic writers.
We follow The Write Stuff by Jane Considine, a clear and highly structured approach that supports children in developing strong ideas, secure sentence skills, and the ability to craft high‑quality pieces of writing.

Our Approach to Teaching Writing

The Write Stuff breaks writing into manageable, engaging steps that help children understand how writing works and how to improve their own compositions. It gives pupils a shared language to talk about their writing and helps teachers deliver lessons with clarity and consistency.

At the heart of the approach are:

The Three‑Chunk Lesson Cycle

1. Initiate – A stimulus (image, film clip, drama, vocabulary gathering) sparks ideas. Children “chot” (chat and jot) vocabulary for use in their writing.
2. Model – The teacher demonstrates high‑quality writing, thinking aloud and showing how to use ideas, grammar, or techniques from the Writing Rainbow.
3. Enable – Pupils write their own sentence using the model and success criteria, sometimes with a “deepen the moment” challenge.

This step‑by‑step structure builds confidence and ensures all children experience successful writing moments.

What is Sentence Stacking?

The core teaching method of The Write Stuff is Sentence Stacking — crafting high‑quality sentences one at a time and assembling them to build a strong paragraph.

Each “stack” focuses on:

• high‑impact vocabulary
• clear grammar choices
• a specific writing technique

This reduces cognitive load and gives pupils repeated examples of excellent sentence construction.

The Writing Rainbow

The Writing Rainbow gives children and teachers a shared visual framework for building powerful writing. It includes three key zones:

The FANTASTICS (Ideas)

Nine lenses that help children think about what should be included in their writing — such as feeling, action, noticing, touching, imagining, and more.
The GRAMMARISTICS (Tools)

Grammar knowledge, sentence structures, and the building blocks of accurate writing.
 The BOOMTASTICS (Techniques)

Writing techniques such as simile, alliteration, and onomatopoeia that add flair and impact.

How We Teach Writing Across the School

Children take part in:

• Experience sessions to build rich ideas and vocabulary
• Sentence stacking lessons using the three‑chunk cycle
• Independent writing where pupils plan, write, and edit a full piece

Over time, pupils learn how to:

• organise ideas
• build cohesion
• understand narrative and non‑fiction structures
• write with purpose and clarity

Editing and Improving Writing

The Write Stuff teaches a clear, three‑stage editing process:

• E1 – Revise: Correct punctuation, spelling, and small errors
• E2 – Rewrite: Improve sentences by strengthening vocabulary or structure
• E3 – Reimagine: Add new details or extra sentences to deepen meaning

Children become increasingly independent in identifying where and how improvements can be made.

Supporting All Children

The Write Stuff benefits all learners by:

• improving sentence confidence and structure
• providing clear pathways for pupils who struggle with cohesion, vocabulary, or paragraphing
• giving teachers strong models and explicit examples across the year

It is especially effective for vulnerable pupils, offering:

• high‑quality models
• shared language
• structured support
• rich experiences to build ideas

How You Can Help at Home

• Talk to your child about books, films, and real‑world experiences.
• Encourage them to describe what they see, think, feel, and imagine (using “Fantastic” lenses).
• Praise interesting word choices and creative ideas.
• Share stories and read widely — strong writers are almost always strong readers.