Phonics & Spelling

At Ashford St Mary’s C of E Primary School we know that reading is an essential life skill, so it is at the heart of our curriculum. We teach early reading using a systematic synthetic phonics programme called ‘Little Wandle.’

‘Effective teachers are highly trained to instil the principles of phonics, can identify the learning needs of young children, and recognise and overcome the barriers that impede learning.’ HMI Ofsted report on ‘Reading by Six’

By following the Little Wandle programme we aim to ensure there is high quality, consistent teaching of phonics and early reading for every child in every classroom, ensuring they develop a lifelong love of reading. The Little Wandle programme lasts for two years, for the majority of children, beginning at the start of the Early Years Foundation Stage and continuing through until the end of Year 1. There are some children who will continue on the programme beyond Year 1, and these children will be supported by trained adults who will monitor children’s progress and adapt teaching to meet individual learning needs

Ashford St Mary’s have chosen Little Wandle as our Phonics programme because it provides;

Daily phonics lesson in Reception and Year 1 and spelling and fluency lessons for Year 2.
Clear progression of expected progress
Planning and supporting resources
On demand CPD, accessible for all staff
Termly assessments and online tracker tool
Keep up programme for Reception and Y1, SEND programme and KS2 Catch Up
Parent resources for home learning
An ever growing selection of fully decodable books matched exactly to the progression

How do children learn to read?

In EYFS

Phonics sessions start from Week 1 of starting school. Children are taught letter sounds in a particular order following the Little Wandle phonics programme.
In the first term, children will be taught s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r,h,b,f,l through whole class teaching.
As the children become more familiar with the school routine, children are assessed according to which sounds they know and whether they are able to blend sounds together e.g s-a-t becomes sat. Using this information any gaps can then be plugged, with an extra focus on any key sounds needed.
All staff, across the school, are trained in Little Wandle and receive ongoing support from both the Phonics and Literacy leads.
Once children have been taught the sounds s,a,t,p they will then be taught to blend words within phonics lessons. As a new sound is introduced new words to orally blend and blend by reading, with the teacher, will be included.
In Autumn 1 Week 4 children will be introduced to simple words for them to blend independently. E.g. dig, pat, man
In Spring 1 Week 1 the children will be introduced to digraphs and trigraphs, which are when one or two letters makes one sound.
From Autumm 1 Week 3 children will be introduced to ‘tricky words.’ These are words that they cannot phonetically decode. E.g. I, the, put, push

Year 1 and beyond

In Year 1, children continue to work through Little Wandle programme.

Children are assessed each term and those that need a little extra support are given Keep Up sessions, led by a trained member of staff. These assessments also determine the reading books that children are given, as they will be appropriate for their level of phonics knowledge.7
Year 1 are expected to complete a statutory phonics screening check in June which checks their phonic knowledge and ability to decode and read a range of real and nonsense words. Little Wandle supports children to be successful in passing their phonics screening check, as well as supporting their reading skills for life.
Year 2 begin the year recapping Year 1 Summer 2 learning to ensure that they are secure in their knowledge. They then progress onto the Little Wandle spelling programme to further embed their automaticity.

Reading Practice

To ensure pupils can apply their phonics knowledge to reading, the Little Wandle programme provides children with three 15-minute reading sessions a week, with a focus on decoding, prosody and comprehension. In addition to this, pupils are exposed to a variety of high quality texts across our creative curriculum to support opportunities for the application of their phonic knowledge.

The parent resources on the Little Wandle website will help you support your child at home, with saying their sounds and writing letters. There are also some useful videos so that you can see how we teach Phonics at St Mary’s and to help you to support your child’s reading at home.

Website Links

The below websites may be useful for supporting your child further with their learning:

Little Wandle https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Letters and Sounds (Phonics games) http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/

Phonics Play (Phonics games) http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

Oxford Owl (Online reading books) https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

Letter Join (Handwriting) http://www.letterjoin.co.uk/

Pronunciation of phonic sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s

Spelling Shed https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb

TT Rockstars https://ttrockstars.com/

White Rose Maths Reasons Problems https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/classroom-resources/problems/

Educational Top Marks Games https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

Jungles and Rainforests https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/geography/physical-geography/15-cool-things-about-rainforests/

Castles https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/castles

Range of topics areas http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/

Plants https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/animals-and-nature/plants/

Bugs https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/insects/15-facts-about-bugs/

Beaches http://www.onegeology.org/extra/kids/earthprocesses/beaches.html

Pirates https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/pirates/