Phonics
Little Wandle
At Icknield, we use the Department for Education-validated phonics programme 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' to help our children learn to read fluently and develop skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.
Reception children have a daily phonics lesson. We build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
Pupil Progress
We follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised's expectations of progress. Each week, we teach four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes, known as 'GPCs' ('Grapheme-Phenome Correspondence', i.e. the letter-sound relationship between each element of the alphabetic code). Children also learn 'tricky words' during these sessions.
Reception children learn Phase 2 GPCs in the Autumn term, Phase 3 GPCs in the Spring term and Phase 4 GPCs in the Summer term.
Year 1 children begin the Autumn term with 3 weeks of revision of Phases 2, 3 and 4, before learning Phase 5 GPCs, which will be completed by the end of the year.
Year 2 children begin the Autumn term by revisiting Phase 5 and other previously taught phases to ensure all children are completely confident with applying these GPCs in both their reading and their writing.
Little Wandle Programme Progression Document
Pronunciation Videos
To see how phenomes are taught at school and help you feel confident about supporting your child's reading at home, please refer to the videos below:
Little Wandle Pronunciation Videos
Reading Practice
Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 read fully decodable books with an adult three times per week during our reading practice sessions. Each of the three reading practice sessions has a different focus: 'decoding', 'prosody' and 'comprehension'.
Our reading books are Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised 'Big Cat' books. These books are sent home for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their families.
Supporting Your Child's Reading at Home
Although your child will be taught 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 will bring home in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: a 'reading practice book' and a 'sharing book'.
Reading Practice Books
Reading practice books are 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 and celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, ask them to decode (sound it out) and blend it. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Sharing Books
In order to encourage your child to become a passionate lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book that they have chosen for you to enjoy together: read it to them or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters and explore the facts in a non-fiction book. After reading the book you can pick out some words and help them to expand their vocabulary by discussing alternatives for these words. The main thing is that you have fun!
Assessments
Daily assessment of learning takes place within the classrooms so that staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention.
Half-termly assessments take place throughout Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and to help identify any children with gaps in their phonic knowledge that will need additional practice.
Phonics Screening Check
Children in Year 1 take part in an individual 'Phonics Screening Check' in the Summer term. We do our best to make the children feel at ease during this time and concentrate on doing their best. Any Year 1 pupil that does not sit or pass their phonics screening check in Year 1 will be required to complete this in Year 2.
Phonics Screening Check - Guide for Parents
Terminology
Please refer to the Glossary document below for an outline of terminology used in the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
Glossary