Reading Matters

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

Reading sits at the heart of Wheatcroft's core values and ethos as an essential life skill.

We are committed to instilling a love and enjoyment of reading in ALL children.

We are committed to ensuring that EVERY CHILD will learn to read to a high standard of fluency and understanding, regardless of their background, their needs or prior attainment.

We are also committed to closing the ‘word gap’ by expanding children’s vocabulary and deepening their understanding of the texts they are reading.

At Wheatcroft, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Bluebells (Reception) and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. 

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At school, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.