Phonics and Reading Scheme

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds

We follow the validated systematic synthetic phonics programmes called ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.’ We have implemented this scheme in Reception and Year 1 during 2021-2022 and will be rolling it out across more classes in the coming year. Children have daily phonics sessions, following the Little Wandle progression, from Autumn term in reception. This continues daily through Year 1 and Year 2 will have revision as necessary. This may change each year and will be based on assessment at the end of Year 1.

The children will learn 4 new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes each week. On Friday they will review the week’s learning to help build their fluency. This teach and review cycle continues throughout the scheme so the children are always reviewing their learning. Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and identify children that may need some extra support. Daily assessment for learning takes place to help us quickly identify children that need additional ‘keep up’ so that we can offer ongoing support rather than waiting until the end of term.

If your child has additional ‘keep up’ it will be a few minutes in an afternoon to play a game or review some graphemes or words that they need support with. We will let you know if there is anything we would like to you support with at home.

Reception Parents - We will hold a Phonics evening in September to take you through the scheme, how we teach in school and how you can support at home. It would be fantastic if you could join, us even in you have older children in the school, as this is a new scheme.

For support with the pronunciation of the phonemes taught please see the videos in the ‘parents’ section of the Little Wandle website.  

Reading Practice Sessions

Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 read fully decodable books that we match to their phonic ability. They will read these books 3 times in school with an adult during their ‘reading practice’ sessions. These books will then be sent home to share their success and continue to build their fluency. The 3 sessions focus on different things.

1 – Decoding. This is all about applying their phonic knowledge to read the words and make sure they understand all the vocabulary in the books.

2- Prosody. In this sessions we re-read the books but focus on a particular page to add expression to our reading.

3- Comprehension – In this session we look at what we have learnt from the book. The children will be asked questions and asked to find evidence in the book to answer them.

Supporting your child at home

Please re-read their reading practise books at home and talk about the books. Share their success! Children will also bring a sharing book home each week. These books are there to help your child learn to love reading and explore vocabulary they are not yet ready to read alone. Take them on adventures through stories. Discuss the pictures, talk about the characters, look at where the book is set. Is it like any books you have read before? Have you met a character like this in another book? Where would you like them to go next?

Most importantly have fun and make reading together a joyful part of their day!