The EYFS framework only expects children to be able to read and write 10 digraphs. What is your rationale behind the Reception curriculum?

 

The aim of the Little Wandle programme is to teach children to read quickly so children can benefit from reading fluently. Children with the lowest starting points benefit the most from learning to read, so there is a clear mandate to teach all children to read quickly. This means making a strong start in Reception.

 

The Reading framework makes this clear:

 

When inspecting the curriculum, Ofsted’s inspectors evaluate the extent to which the ‘teaching [of] early reading and synthetic phonics is systematic and ensures that all children learn to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception’.

 

In order to ensure children are making good progress our curriculum includes all of the Phase 2 and 3 graphemes. This does mean that children in Reception learn to read 14 vowel digraphs/trigraphs. This progression is based on the pace of learning that our two founder schools have used for many years, and is backed up by the expectations set by the English Hub programme.

 

Many programmes go beyond the EYFS framework expectations – we are not alone in this. Our progression has been approved by the DfE as part of the validation and has met the expectations of Ofsted in inspections.