“Once you learn to read, You will be forever free” – Frederick Douglass
For parents | Letters and Sounds
📖 Reading Curriculum at Tebay Primary School
At Tebay Primary School, we are passionate about developing confident, fluent, and enthusiastic readers who have a lifelong love of books. Our reading curriculum is built upon the accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme, ensuring a consistent, evidence-based approach to early reading and phonics.
We believe that reading is the gateway to all learning, and our carefully structured progression supports every child in becoming a skilled and independent reader.
📚 Our Curriculum Structure
Reading at Tebay Primary School is delivered through a sequenced, whole-school approach that follows three key stages of development:
1️⃣ Early Reading and Phonics (EYFS & KS1)
- We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme to deliver daily, systematic phonics lessons.
- Children learn to decode accurately, blending sounds to read words with growing confidence.
- Every child reads fully decodable books that are carefully matched to their individual phonic level, ensuring success and progression.
- Reading practice sessions take place three times a week, focusing on:
- Decoding – applying phonic knowledge to read words accurately.
- Prosody – reading with expression and understanding.
- Comprehension – developing understanding of what has been read.
2️⃣ Transition to Fluent Reading (Lower KS2)
- As children become fluent decoders, they move into Bridge to Spelling, which consolidates key phonics knowledge and supports accurate spelling and vocabulary development.
- Pupils continue to practise fluency through guided reading sessions using the Little Wandle Fluency scheme, where they revisit the three reading focuses of decoding, prosody, and comprehension in increasingly complex texts.
3️⃣ Reading for Meaning and Pleasure KS2
In Key Stage 2, reading is taught through a carefully sequenced and structured approach using Comprehension Ninja to develop pupils’ comprehension skills effectively. The programme supports pupils in becoming fluent, confident readers who can engage critically with a wide range of texts.
Comprehension Ninja explicitly teaches key comprehension strategies, including retrieval, inference, prediction, summarising and the understanding of vocabulary in context. These skills are revisited and built upon progressively, ensuring that pupils develop secure and transferable reading skills as they move through the key stage.
High-quality texts are used to promote discussion and deepen understanding. Pupils are taught to justify their responses with evidence from the text, supporting the development of higher-order thinking and accurate written and verbal responses. Regular assessment and targeted support ensure that all pupils, including those who need additional help, are supported to keep up and make strong progress.
Pupils in Key Stage 2 who require additional support with reading continue to build fluency through Little Wandle Rapid Catch-Up sessions and the Little Wandle fluency programme. These targeted interventions ensure that gaps in decoding and fluency are addressed swiftly, enabling pupils to access age-appropriate texts and fully participate in comprehension lessons.
Through this coherent and inclusive approach, pupils develop a secure understanding of what they read, enabling them to access the wider curriculum and fostering a positive attitude towards reading.
