Phonics and Early Reading
We are a Little Wandle School!
Little Wandle is a high quality tried and tested structured synthetic phonics programme. It has been quality assured and validated by the Department for Education and is used widely by many schools.
Nursery
In Nursery, children access the ‘Foundations for Phonics’ programme. Foundations for Phonics develops children’s phonological and phonemic awareness through fun, engaging games and nursery rhymes. Developing these skills in Nursery lays the best possible foundations for learning phonics in Reception. There are two aspects to Foundations for Phonics: Rhyme time and Tuning into sounds. Rhyme time explores rhyme to build up a bank of shared language, develop children’s understanding of the world and familiarity with the sounds in words. Tuning into sounds teaches phonological and phonemic awareness through games.
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Foundations for Phonics Planning Overview | [pdf 1MB] |
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Reception
In the Reception year of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, children follow a structured phonics progression to develop early reading and writing skills. They begin with Phase 2, learning individual letter sounds and blending them to read simple CVC words, while also being introduced to basic tricky words like is and the. In Phase 3, they progress to digraphs and trigraphs (e.g. sh, ai, igh), enabling them to read and spell a wider range of words, along with more tricky words such as he, she, and they. Phase 4 focuses on reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants (e.g. frog, clap) and increasing fluency. Throughout the year, children engage in daily phonics lessons, regular small-group reading sessions with fully decodable books, and are continuously assessed to ensure targeted support, all aimed at building strong, confident early readers.
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Reception Overview | [pdf 533KB] |
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Year 1
In Year 1 of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, children review and consolidate Phase 4 before moving into Phase 5, where they learn alternative graphemes for known phonemes (e.g. ay for ai, oe for ow) and explore new sounds (e.g. wh, ph, ew). They develop greater fluency in reading and spelling by recognising that the same sound can be represented in different ways and that some graphemes can represent more than one sound. Tricky words are taught systematically, and children read books that are closely matched to their phonics knowledge. Regular assessments and interventions ensure all pupils keep up, not catch up. By the end of Year 1, children are prepared for the Phonics Screening Check, with a strong focus on decoding unfamiliar words confidently and reading with increasing accuracy and fluency.
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Year 1 Overview | [pdf 556KB] |
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Keep-up not Catch-up
Ongoing daily assessment and 3 weekly phonics assessments identify children that have not secured the required learning. Any child with gaps in their knowledge or skills receives Daily Keep-Up phonics intervention.
Little Wandle's Daily Keep-up sessions are short, focused interventions designed to help children who need additional support to stay on track with phonics learning. These sessions take place daily and follow the same structure and progression as the main phonics lessons, reinforcing previously taught sounds, words, and reading skills. The aim is to provide targeted, consistent practice that helps children secure their phonics knowledge and build confidence. By revisiting key content in a supportive, structured way, Daily Keep-up ensures that no child is left behind in their early reading journey.