Phonics
As a school we follow the Little Wandle scheme throughout Foundation and Key Stage 1.
At Gunthorpe Primary school and through the Little Wandle programme, children will learn to read with confidence, fluency and understanding, providing them with the skills required to achieve a lifetime of enjoyment through reading.
EYFS
Welcome to the beginning of the most wonderful journey in which your child, whatever their starting point, will become a fluent, confident reader who loves books! For many children at the start of Reception, letters look like squiggles on the page and have no connection to sounds. Learning that letters and sounds are linked – phonics – is the key to reading. In Reception, we will teach children the sounds of the first set of letters in the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme (Phase 2) so they can begin to use phonics to read. Their reading journey will then progress to learning of the Phase 3 sounds. These are common vowel digraphs (two letters making one sound, for example ‘oa’) and trigraphs (three letters making one sound, for example ‘igh’). Spotting these digraphs and trigraphs is key to cracking this next stage in the reading journey.
Year One
Your child is on their journey to becoming a skilled reader. In Reception, they learned all of the single letter sounds, the consonant digraphs and some vowel digraphs (digraph: two letters, one sound) and trigraphs (three letters, one sound). In Year 1, children will learn the remaining graphemes in the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. These are alternative spellings for the sounds that they already know. The children will become more fluent readers and will read increasingly challenging texts.
Phonics screening check
In the summer term of Year One, your child will participate a statutory phonics screening check. All children in Year One will take the check and any Year Two children who did not meet the expected standard in previous check will take the check again.
Ways to support your child:
- Modelling segmenting and blending of words.
- Reading the book banded book sent home with your child at least five times a week.
- Model reading of school library books and your child's favourite books at home.
- Encourage children to read signs, labels and other text while out and about.
- Reading and writing common exception words little and often
Frequently asked questions and answers:
How can I read a wordless book?
• Wordless books are invaluable as they teach reading behaviours and early reading skills to children who are not yet blending.
• Talk to your child about what they can see in the pictures.
• Point to the images in the circles and find them on the page.
• Encourage your child to make links from the book to their own experiences.
My child is reading the books fluently at home. Do they need a more challenging book?
• No! We want children to be able to read fluently and not find reading to be a chore.
• Once they can read fluently, they can focus on adding expression when reading aloud and showing their understanding of the book. Use the prompts on the back page of the books to check your child’s understanding.
• Remember that phonics supports your child’s reading and their spelling!
What if my child comes across a word that they can’t read straight away?
• If your child is unsure of a word, ask them to sound it out and then blend.
• Ask them if they can spot any digraphs (two letters, one sound) or trigraphs (three letters, one sound) before decoding the word.
• Never ask your child to guess words using the pictures or initial sounds as clues. If they are really struggling just read the word to them.