The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme begins in the earliest years with the Foundations for Phonics programme, which we deliver to our Pre-School children. Year 1 class teachers will hold a meeting for parents in the Spring term to ensure that parents feel confident in supporting their children during the phonics screening check. For this reason we have included many suffixes in Phase 6 in the programme so children have been taught to read the words before the meet them in the books. Little Wandle is the only scheme used throughout school as we know that a consistent approach lowers cognitive load and gives our children the best chance of success.

If one of them is stuck for an idea, the other usually comes up with something or makes a cup of tea.They include a huge range of short, fun activities supporting pupils’ language development, story reading, phonological awareness and oral blending. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. Teachers will use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and matching grids to ensure that children are given a book that is fully decodable in line with their secure phonic knowledge. As far as I can see, the 7+ books look to just be the same phases but aimed at older kids (ie more age appropriate content for kids with a lower reading age than their age).

However, for some children it may be best for them to be part of the main lesson and then work with an adult. They learn how to ‘grow the code,’ learning that there are different ways to represent the different phonemes that they learnt in Reception. From September 2023, Little Wandle introduced a Phonics and spelling programme Year 2 consisting of daily lessons.Ad an observation, the blue band books we’ve had home do seem very short compared to some of the other reading schemes. This progression is based on the DfE’s publication ‘Letters and Sounds: Improving Rates of Progress 2021’. This will be taught in a fun multisensory way and may well involve: writing sounds/ words, songs, actions, pictures, puppets, writing giant letters in the air, using different voices, moving around the room, treasure hunts. This training is open to all members of the leadership team who are working with the Reading Leader on programme implementation and development. They will practice decoding the words in the book and will discuss the meaning of any new words before reading.

Weekly content grids, lesson templates and ‘How to’ videos all help to ensure that all adults maintain consistency in their teaching and this is monitored half termly by the Reading Leader and SLT so that any misconceptions or inconsistencies can be rectified as soon as possible. Pupils read in all subjects in the curriculum and will read different genres to develop their understanding about a topic. Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.The old book banding system is organised by criteria matched to the 3 cueing method not to phonics and is pretty meaningless. The six modules take around five hours in total to complete and can be done a module at a time if required. All children in Reception and Year 1 participate in a daily phonics lessons, usually in the morning. How to’ videos, training and prompt cards help you ensure your team is confident delivering these activities. Each book also contains parent’s notes and a ‘retell the story’ activity to support children’s comprehension and vocabulary skills.