Reading, Writing and Spelling at Tidbury Green

 Reading and Writing at Tidbury Green

Please click on the link below to view our “Intent Statement” for reading and writing at Tidbury Green.

Intent Statement

Reading

'Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.'

Reading is a fundamental part of learning at Tidbury Green. We strongly believe that the ability to read is fundamental to pupils’ learning across the curriculum, their ability to be independent and to shape their future life choices. Our determination to succeed is driven by our reading mantra - 'Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.'

To find out more about reading at Tidbury Green, please read our reading policy below.

Reading Policy

Reading for Pleasure

Reading for pleasure matters at Tidbury Green: we read to our children, read with our children and talk to our children about books. From author visits to our daily class reads, we find any excuse we can to engage with books. 

If you want to improve your book chat at home, here's a useful guide from 'The Open University' to help:

There are also these helpful videos from 'The Open University' that model what book chat at home might look like:

 Early Reading and Phonics

Since 2023, Tidbury Green has been a National Champion School for the the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' early reading programme, a DfE validated programme to develop our young readers. This means that our teaching team are experts and we share best practice with schools locally and nationally. The 'Foundations for Phonics' are established in Nursery.  To see the phonics progression map that we use, click here.

Here are some videos to support you and your child in recalling the sounds they will be taught in Reception:

Many more videos to support your child with their phonics, including the Phase 5 sounds taught in Year 1, can be found on the Little Wandle website:

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

 You may also find these grapheme information sheets useful to support your child in developing their phonic recall and letter formation:

Little Wandle Phase 2 Grapheme Info Sheet A1

Little Wandle Phase 2 Grapheme Info Sheet A2

Little Wandle Phase3 Grapheme Info Sheet SPR1

Building Fluency - Decodable Practice Book

To develop their reading fluency our children in Reception and Year 1 are assigned a decodable practice book each week by their class teacher. This book is carefully matched to their current reading level and reading of it is practiced over three teacher-led sessions in school. Your child should be able to read this book with confidence.

Alongside their reading practice book, your child will also bring home a 'Sharing Book'. This is a book that they have chosen themselves from the school library. This is a book for you and your child to share, read and enjoy together.   

Whole Class Reading Lessons

Building on from our strong foundations throughout the Early Years and Year 1, high-quality reading lessons continue for our children throughout Year 2 to Year 6 with reading lessons to develop the key reading comprehension and reading fluency skills of the National Curriculum. Years 2 and 3 follow the reading programme and explore the quality texts from The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. In Year 4, 5 and 6, we have curated whole class reading lessons using our favourite texts for fluent readers. These lessons ensure that pupils deepen their reading comprehension and delve into quality novels to embed the foundations of fluent, capable and confident young readers.

Please click on the links below to see how you can support your child with reading.

Library

At Tidbury Green, we are very fortunate to have an amazingly vibrant and well-stocked library that offers the children access to a range of fiction and non-fiction books. We encourage the children to select books to read for enjoyment that they can then share with their family.

Please click on the links below to view the recommended reading lists for each year group.

Nursery  

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Spelling

At Tidbury Green School, we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds spelling programme during the Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2. From Years 3 to Year 6, we have curated a scheme of work for spellings as a pathway to develop competent spellers by the end of the primary phase. This focuses on teaching the children strategies that support them in their spelling of words by identifying patterns, rules, etymology and common exceptions. This is particularly useful in helping our children in Years 3 to 6 learn their statutory spellings.

Please click on the links below.

Little Wandle Grapheme Mat

Years 3-4 Statutory Spelling list 

Years 5-6 Statutory Spelling list