Little Wandle Letters and Sounds

Phonics is an important tool to develop reading fluency. The Department for Education National Curriculum for England states that reading helps pupils to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually and socially. An important goal of the curriculum is therefore to enable young learners to become fluent readers. Phonics is an approach to teaching reading, and some aspects of writing, by developing learners’ phonemic awareness. This involves the skills of hearing, identifying and using phonemes or sound patterns in English. The aim is to systematically teach learners the relationship between these sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. Phonics emphasises the skills of decoding new words by sounding them out and combining or ‘blending’ the sound-spelling patterns.

In school we follow a programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. This comprehensive programme provides a multisensory approach using letter formation cards, rhymes, sound flash cards, games and opportunities to apply new learning in each daily session.

Using the Little Wandle Letters & Sounds lesson structure, each session will follow the same format of introduce, revisit and review, teach, practise and apply. This ensures that children learn new sounds whilst applying taught sounds to their reading of new words. Children will work on decoding, segmenting and blending in every lesson. They will be exposed to and taught to use the correct subject specific technical vocabulary (such as phoneme, digraph, grapheme – see Glossary below for more details).

Phonics resources are consistent throughout the school, allowing children to apply their phonic knowledge in all areas of the curriculum. Sound and word mats will support spelling and writing across the curriculum and having access to consistent displays will enable children to apply taught knowledge and skills to decode unfamiliar words independently.

Below you will find a programme overview for Reception so you know what your child will be learning in Phonics. You will also find a glossary of terms which explains all the technical vocabulary we will use in school. There is also a grapheme information sheet for Autumn Term 1. Below is also a link to the Little Wandle Website where you will find further videos and documents to assist you further with reading at home.

Supporting Reading at Home

Although your child will be taught the skills to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home. There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:

• A reading practice book - This will be at the correct phonic stage or reading age for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.
• A sharing book – For your child to choose themselves and read for pleasure either to an adult or independently.

Reading Practice Book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together. There are suggested questions in the back of the phonics book. You might notice your child comes home with a sticker on their arm containing a specific grapheme or word we are working on in class – we do this so children can practise it through the day and recall it when questioned by an adult. It would be great if you could support this at home too by asking your child to tell you what it is. The more chances they have to rehearse it, the more automatic they will become.

Sharing Book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book your child has chosen for you to enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

Reading Records

Remember to record each time you read at home with your child in their reading record – just a short comment on how much they could read independently (from their practice book) and any observations on what they enjoyed, observed or talked about would be very useful. Remember to keep it positive – reading should always be an enjoyable experience.

If you have any questions about how we teach phonics in school, please chat to Mrs Desforges or your child's class teacher.

Welcome to Our Reading Page!

This page will be used to keep you updated on all things reading. We will add links to useful websites and share documents to support you when reading with your child at home. 

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