Little Wandle Letters and Sounds

We are proud to be delivering the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Programme; a systematic, synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics. 

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds draws on the latest research into how children learn best; how to ensure learning stays in children’s long term memory and how best to enable children to apply their learning to become highly competent readers.

Phonics begins in Nursery – daily ‘phase 1’ activities are introduced to embed the foundations for phonics. This will ensure children are well prepared to begin grapheme–phoneme correspondence and blending at the start of Reception. Little Wandle sessions are taught every day in Reception and Year 1. These continue into the Autumn term in Year 2.

Reception learn phase 2 graphemes during the Autumn 2, phase 3 in the Spring Term and phase 4 in the Summer term. Year 1 recap phase 3 and 4 in the Autumn term and then focus on phase 5 to prepare them for the phonics screening check taking place in the summer term. Year 2 recap phase 5 during the Autumn term. 

Throughout the phonics programme, progress is tracked and monitored closely to identify children who require ‘keep up’ sessions. These short sessions will be specific to individual needs and will take place throughout the school day.

Children in Key Stage 2 will continue to receive ‘catch up’ sessions 3 times a week until they have a secure knowledge of phonic phases 1-5.

For more information on how phonics is taught in school and how you can support at home, click this link Little Wandle for Parents to visit the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds website. There are useful videos on this page, or click the sub pages for more information on each phase.