Intent

At Elham Church of England Primary School, we understand how essential it is that children leave Key Stage 1 with a secure and robust foundation in reading and writing. Reading is a foundational skill upon which all other areas of learning and the wider curriculum are built. Children who do not learn to read are at a considerable disadvantage in their ongoing learning; therefore, we place a strong emphasis on high-quality early reading teaching.

Moreover, we want children at Elham Church of England Primary School to develop a genuine passion for reading and to view themselves confidently as readers. We recognise that while secure decoding skills are vital, a love of reading is most likely to be fostered when children are exposed to high-quality texts and encouraged to read widely and often.

Children at Elham Church of England Primary School should leave our school as confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers, with a broad and varied knowledge of high-quality literature, ready to access the curriculum both at our school and beyond.

Implementation

To ensure that our children become strong and confident readers, we use a range of complementary approaches. Our core programme for early reading is Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, a systematic synthetic phonics programme approved by the Department for Education and underpinned by decades of research.

Guided by research and evidence from the DfE, the Education Endowment Foundation and Ofsted, we have developed an early literacy programme in which phonemic awareness and phonics are central. This ensures that children are explicitly taught the knowledge and skills required to decode, blend and segment words accurately.

To support and quality-assure the delivery of our phonics curriculum, we work closely with the Kingsnorth English Hub. This partnership provides training, professional development and external moderation, ensuring that our practice remains current, consistent and of a high standard.

In line with the Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading (the Rose Report), we recognise that while high-quality systematic synthetic phonics should be the prime approach for teaching decoding and encoding (reading and spelling), it must sit within a broad and rich literacy curriculum.

To support this, children have regular visits to our school library, parents are invited to workshops explaining how phonics is taught and how they can support reading at home, and teachers adapt planning from The Literacy Tree, which is rooted in the use of high-quality texts. This approach to early literacy, alongside a strong Early Years foundation and a whole-school commitment to phonics, forms the cornerstone of our approach to reading at Elham Church of England Primary School.

Impact

Outcomes in reading, writing and spelling across the school demonstrate that pupils are well prepared to access the wider curriculum. Key Stage 2 outcomes for 2024/25 were encouraging, particularly in Reading, Writing and SPaG, with forecasts for 2025/26 indicating further improvement. This reflects the strength of reading provision over time and supports the effectiveness of the school’s approach to literacy.

Outcomes in Early Years and the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check in 2024/25 were less strong, with EYFS outcomes at 44% and phonics outcomes at 85%, below national averages. Leaders have a clear understanding of the factors contributing to this, including inconsistency in phonics provision prior to the introduction of a fully systematic synthetic phonics programme.

In response, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised was adopted in September 2025 to ensure a consistent, evidence-based approach to early reading across EYFS and Key Stage 1. As this programme has only been in place for a short time, its full impact is not yet reflected in statutory data. However, early indicators of impact are very strong.

Internal phonics assessments, pupil progress information and ongoing formative assessment show that children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 are making rapid progress in phonemic awareness, decoding and early reading fluency. Learning gaps are being quickly identified and addressed, and the proportion of pupils working at or above age-related expectations is increasing across cohorts.

The quality of phonics teaching and early reading provision has been externally validated through exceptionally positive feedback from the Kingsnorth English Hub. This confirms that staff subject knowledge, consistency of delivery and fidelity to the programme are strong, and that provision is well placed to secure improved outcomes over time.

As a result, pupils are becoming increasingly confident readers, able to apply their phonics knowledge independently, read with fluency and engage positively with a wide range of texts. Leaders are confident that, as cohorts move through the school, improvements in EYFS and phonics outcomes will be reflected in future statutory assessments.

Little Wandle Phonics Scheme

For more information on the Little Wandle Phonics Scheme, including how you can support at home, sound pronunciation guides, information on the approach and much more, please click the following link: 

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/