Early Reading and Phonics
Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds Revised
This academic year we have adopted a new systematic, synthetic phonics programme to support us with our teaching of early reading - ‘Little Wandle – Revised Letters and Sounds’.
This page will help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters in line with our ‘Little Wandle’ scheme.
Find our full Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview here to see what your child will learn and when. (NB Because our Year 1 children are starting the programme part way through with the scheme being new, for this academic year only, the overview does not quite align with what we are teaching in class.)
Pronouncing the Sounds Properly
Pronouncing the sounds as purely as possible is a crucial part of any phonics programme. Helping learners to understand how to say what we call 'pure sounds' is an important factor in building a strong foundation for future and more difficult phonic learning. By clicking on the link below you will find film clips of how we pronounce the sounds in school. Notice how the children do not add an ‘uh’ sound at the end, so they say: ‘t’ not ‘tuh’.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Prompts for Saying and Writing the Sounds
Below are some sheets that may support you at home if you are helping your child with their sound and letter learning. There is a pronunciation phrase that helps you and your child when saying the sound and a formation patter for writing it.
Guidance on How We Teach
There are film clips under the ‘How We Teach’ tab that provide parents and carers with greater guidance around what certain aspects of the Little Wandle programme look like in a classroom setting.
These film clips can be found here:
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Support for Tricky Words
‘Tricky words’ are words that cannot easily be decoded (‘sounded out’ and read). This is because some of the sounds in these words are spelled in an unusual way. Children need to read these words accurately and automatically as they are among the most common in English and come up time and again in early reading books. There is guidance showing what part of each word is tricky and which phonic phase they are taught in.
Support for tricky words Reception Autumn term
Support for tricky words Reception Spring term
Support for tricky words Reception Summer term
Support for tricky words Year 1
Little Wandle Flashcards for Home
Sets of flashcards have been produced by Little Wandle that can be used to support phonics at home.
Please see the link below to find the flashcards, and film clips as to how they can be used by parents and carers with their children.