Phonics
At Thornden Wood, we use the DfE validated scheme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to deliver our daily phonics sessions. Phonics is taught as a whole class session with opportunities for the children to apply what they have learnt in different sessions such as guided reading, play and learn, Drawing Club in Foundation Stage and guided reading, shared reading and writing in different curriculum areas in Key Stages 1 and 2. The progression of this scheme ensures that children are exposed to the 42 main letter sounds, including digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs with the use of rhymes and visual prompts to help with letter formation. The sounds are taught in a specific order, not alphabetical, as this provides them with the skills to start building words quickly. In addition to this, the children are taught how to read and write ‘tricky words,’ often referred to as Common Exception Words, as they do not allow the children to decode the word using their phonics knowledge.
In Foundation Stage the children are introduced to Phase 2 and 3 sounds, whilst still working on the Phase 1 listening skills through their daily sessions. The children have access to phonics in their inside and outside learning environments. When the children are secure in Phase 2 and 3 they move onto using these phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) to build words in Phase 4 and some of the introductory Phase 5 sounds in the summer term.
Year 1 builds on the progress the children have already made in Foundation Stage. To begin with, they will recap the Phase 2 and 3 phonemes before moving on and consolidating the Phase 5 sounds. In the summer terms, they are introduced to alternative spellings and pronunciations of some of the phonemes they already know. In Year 1 the children are also prepared for and supported to be able to complete the National Phonics Screening Check. This involves the children reading a range of real and nonsense words by using their segmenting and blending skills (sounding out and sticking back together the words).
Little Wandle continues into Year 2. The Rapid Catch-up program is used to support children who are still acquiring phonics knowledge and who did not reach the expected level in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. For those children that are ready to move on, Little Wandle Fluency is used to improve children’s reading fluency, working on their reading pace, understanding and applying decoding skills. In phonic sessions the children work through Little Wandle’s spelling program to prepare them for moving into Key Stage 2.
Little Wandle reading books:
Once your child has begun to learn some graphemes (letters) and the phoneme (sound) they make, they will be sent home with a Little Wandle reading book at the end of the week. This will be a book that they are familiar with, as they will have already read it 3 times in school with an adult. This is an opportunity for your child to read to you, to share with you the skills they have learnt in school and the phonemes that they can use to build words with. The books they take home are carefully matched to each child’s phonological knowledge – they will never contain words that they cannot either decode and read or tricky words that they have not been taught yet. By practicing the book so many times, your child learns to read fluently, to hear themselves as a reader rather than struggling. Your child will keep this book for a week and return it on the following Friday to swap for their next Little Wandle book. To help with looking after these books we do ask parents and carers to sign our Little Wandle Home Reading agreement.
More information about Little Wandle can be found on the parent pages of their website: https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Link to intent document
Useful websites
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - has some free games to help with sight recall and blending skills of real and nonsense words, but you can also buy membership
https://ictgames.com/ - free games to help with different skills within English and Maths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks - short video clips and games that encourage the children to recognise different sounds
