Our Aim

Our aim is for every child to be a reader. By using the Little Wandle phonics scheme, we ensure every child can develop

strong early reading skills. Children become confident readers who can decode accurately, understand what they read,

and enjoy books both at school and at home.

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Our Strategy

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised – Our Phonics Scheme

We  use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, a highly structured and systematic phonics programme that helps children learn to read and write with confidence. It is a synthetic phonics scheme, meaning children learn to break words into sounds and blend them to read, as well as segment them to spell. 

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How Little Wandle Supports Early Reading

• The programme follows a clear progression, beginning in Reception and continuing through Year 1 (and into Year 2 for additional support where needed). Children build their knowledge of the alphabetic code step by step, ensuring they can read and spell increasingly complex words. 

• Little Wandle includes six phases, starting with listening skills and sound awareness, then moving through learning letter–sound correspondences, blending for reading, segmenting for spelling, and developing fluency and comprehension. 

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Early reading skills are taught from Foundation 1, with the aim of giving children a love of language, books and storytelling.

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Daily Phonics Teaching

• Children take part in daily phonics lessons, reviewing previous learning and introducing new sounds and tricky words in small, manageable steps. 

• Lessons follow a consistent structure so children know what to expect, helping them retain learning over time

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Reading Practice Sessions

• In Reception and Year 1, pupils have three reading practice sessions each week in small groups led by a trained adult. These sessions help children develop:

  • Decoding – reading the words using phonics

  • Prosody – reading with expression

  • Comprehension – understanding what they have read

• Children read books that are fully decodable, meaning they only include sounds they have been taught, helping them experience success and build confidence quickly. 

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Support for Every Child

• We track progress carefully and reflect and analyse trends in order to plan groups adapt teaching strategies and 'think differently' for some pupils, and additional interventions needed.

• Additional phonics lessons are provided in Year 2 or 3 for pupils who still need support to become fluent readers. 

• For those children who cannot learn to read through a phonetic approach, we assess meticulously and move to alternative methods such as whole- word visual recognition. 

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Parent Involvement

In order to maximise the learning of phonics and early reading skills we encourage parent involvement right from Foundation Stage. Meetings to discuss what phonics is and how we teach this enable parents to support children at home and maximise learning. We also hold phonics workshops for parents who are invited in to take part in phonics activities, see what we do and also take ideas they can use at home.

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Further information for parents about Little Wandle Letters and Sounds can be found on the following website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/  ​​