Phonics

Welcome to our dedicated curriculum page for our chosen phonics scheme – Little Wandle!

This page will provide information on our chosen scheme, including recordings of workshops and presentations. Additionally, you will find links to useful videos to help at home as well as downloadable resources that you can use at home with child. We are excited to be continuing our phonics journey with Little Wandle, please get in touch if you’d like further support, information or advice at enquiries@turnditch.derbyshire.sch.uk

Our Phonics Rationale

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is our new phonics programme used in school.  Right from the start of Reception, children will have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and this continues in Year One and Year Two to ensure children become fluent readers.

In Reception, 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. Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (see below). Four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are taught (GPCs) each week and they are then used in the final lesson of the week to review the week’s learning. Children will also learn tricky words during these sessions.

In the Autumn and Spring term, Reception learn phase 2 and phase 3 GPCs and then will spend the final term learning phase 4. Year 1 begin the Autumn term with 3 weeks of revision of phases 2, 3 and 4 before learning phase 5, which will be completed by the end of the year. Year 2 and Year 3 children will begin the year 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 also their writing. (Please see the overview below for what this progression looks like).

Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and help identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention.

Children are given the chance to read books that are 100% phonetically decodable and are carefully matched to your child’s phonic ability. They will only have books with sounds and tricky words that they have been taught. There is a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books designed to interest your child. Remember, when the children bring these home, they should be approximately 95% fluent with the book, having read it up to 3 times at school that week. It’s all about the celebration of reading!

Reading Practice Sessions

• Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2, read fully decodable books with an adult 2-3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions. 
• Our reading books in Reception are ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books’ 

Our Reading Intent 

At Turnditch CE Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Turnditch CE Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Useful resources and documents

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1

This Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1 video is designed to be shared with families by schools using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2

This Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2 video is designed to be shared with families to help them to support learning at home.

Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1

This Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1 video is designed to be shared with families to help them support the learning at home.

The videos below will demonstrate how we teach your child specific aspects of phonics in class.

How we teach blending

Quick guide to Alien words

This Alien words video is designed to be shared with families by schools using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised complete phonics programme to help children blend and understand the difference between real and nonsense words.

For parents – Letters and Sounds (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk)

How we teach tricky words

This explanation of tricky words video is designed to be shared with families by schools using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised complete phonics …

Supporting your child with reading – Although your child will be taught to read at school, you 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 read at home:A reading practice book – This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.A sharing book, chosen by them from the school library – Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

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 and revisit any words they found challenging.

Sharing books

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 they have chosen from the school library 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!