Phonics

Phonics and Early Reading

Welcome to our phonics and early reading page. Here, you will find information on how we teach children to read and write, developing confident and fluent readers for life. We are committed to fostering a love of reading from the earliest age, and our approach is based on the latest research and best practices outlined in the DfE’s Reading Framework. 

Our Approach to Phonics

We use a high-quality, systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a complete and rigorous programme that is fully resourced and has been validated by the Department for Education. 

Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 receive a minimum of 20 minutes of high-quality phonics teaching every day. Sessions are engaging and interactive, including physical and auditory practice to help sounds stick in children’s minds.

Children are taught in ability groups by experienced teachers and teaching assistants. This ensures that every child is taught the relevant grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), blending and segmenting skills, and spelling rules at their appropriate pace.

Little Wandle is built on an aspirational yet achievable progression, designed to help children move from learning to read, to reading to learn, as quickly as possible. This gives them access to the wide world of knowledge and literature. 

What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics?

Synthetic phonics teaches children to read by breaking words down into their individual sounds (phonemes). They then learn to match these sounds to letters or groups of letters (graphemes) and blend them together to read the whole word. 

For example, when reading the word 'cat', a child would learn to:

• Identify the three phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/
• Match these to their corresponding graphemes: 'c', 'a', 't'
• Blend them together to read the word: 'c-a-t' 

How can you help at home?

You are your child's most important reading role model. Here are some simple ways you can support their reading journey:

• Use the resources: You can find a wealth of resources, including videos on how to pronounce sounds, on the Little Wandle website.
• Listen to them read: When your child brings a book home, encourage them to use their phonic knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.
• Read aloud to them: Sharing a story is a special time. Reading a wide variety of books to your child exposes them to a broader vocabulary and a love of stories.
• Talk about the text: Discuss the pictures, characters, and events in the story to build their comprehension skills. 

By working together, we can ensure every child develops into a confident, fluent, and enthusiastic reader.

Keeping All Children on Track: Our 'Keep-up' and 'Catch-up' Programmes

While our Little Wandle phonics programme is designed to ensure every child learns to read, we recognise that some pupils will need additional, targeted support. Our robust approach to keeping children on track ensures that any potential gaps are addressed swiftly and effectively. 

Daily 'Keep-up' Support for Reception and Year 1

We use the Little Wandle assessments to quickly identify any child who is at risk of falling behind the expected pace of our phonics programme.

For children who need it, a short, focused 'keep-up' session is delivered daily in addition to the main phonics lesson. 

These lessons use the same familiar Little Wandle procedures, resources, and memorable mantras as the whole-class teaching. The key difference is that the steps are smaller and there is more repetition to help the learning stick.

We continually assess and monitor children's progress. As soon as a child has secured their learning, they will move back into the whole-class session. 

'Rapid Catch-up' for Year 2 and Key Stage 2

For older children (Year 2 and above) who are not reading at age-related expectations, or, who may have transferred from a different education system, we use the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme. This is a complete programme designed for those aged 7 and above to accelerate their progress.

Rapid Catch-up mirrors the core Little Wandle programme but is taught at a faster pace. The lessons are short, sharp, and focused on addressing specific gaps in phonics knowledge.

The programme is embedded in daily reading practice using age-appropriate decodable books from the Little Wandle 7+ range. This ensures that older children have the chance to grow their language and become fluent readers using texts that match their growing maturity.

Children are assessed at the end of the programme to check they have gained enough fluency and accuracy to exit the Rapid Catch-up programme and return to their regular reading groups. 

Little Wandle SEND Programme

For pupils with complex special educational needs (SEND), we provide further, more specific support.

The Little Wandle SEND programme is a complete, adapted programme for learners who require specific adaptations to the teaching steps because of complex needs.

Resources mirror the core Little Wandle programme but are broken down into smaller steps to support a graduated approach. Resources include sensory grapheme cards and guidance developed specifically for special schools.

Reading in KS1 and EYFS

Reading in the Early Years and Key Stage one follows the Little Wandle scheme. During daily Guided Reading sessions children are split into small groups and everyone in the class reads with an adult focussing on the phonics phase at which they are working. This is usually 5/6 groups of children with each group having one adult with them. The sessions focus on either decoding, prosody (expression and fluency)or comprehension. Children take home reading books that match their phonics phase for extra practise. Children in year 2 who have completed the phonics scheme move onto the fluency books, then Collins Big Cat books but still follow the per week reading pattern.

Guided Reading in KS1 and EYFS takes place daily outside of the daily English lesson. The children work in small groups, using  the Little Wandle Collins Big Cat, Letters and Sounds  reading scheme. Activities include pre-reading of previously taught phonemes and tricky words; reading to the teacher or teaching assistant and answering focused reading questions; responding to the text; and individual reading.   

In KS2 classes, whole class guided reading takes place daily for 30 minutes outside of the English lesson. Texts are selected from a progressive scheme set out for each year group.  The following sequence is followed: 

• Exploration of the text
• Vocabulary Check
• Skills based  focussed teaching and questioning
• Individual Thinking time is allowed for children to think about and respond to a text
• Solo Work the children give written responses to the text

Home Reading

Every child takes part in the Home Reading Scheme, which in KS1 is in line with the phonics stage they are working within.

Children are expected to read their home reading book daily and our reading records are monitored by staff and a reading awards system is operated in all classes; 

• Awards are presented in celebration worship which takes place every Friday. 
• When children have read twenty five times they receive a wristband for a bronze award. 
• When children have read fifty times they receive a silver award badge and certificate
• When children have read a hundred times they receive a gold award certificate and medal.