We view phonics as a specific, defined body of knowledge which opens up the potential of reading and other learning. Our approach to teaching phonics is underpinned by our belief that all our children can become fluent readers and writers who see themselves as readers for both meaning and pleasure.
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. This enables our children to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. Children are given opportunities to practice and apply phonics skills that they are learning through the use of fully decodable books.
In nursery we provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.
We teach phonics daily. Lessons build from 10-minute sessions, with additional daily oral blending games at the start of Reception, to 30 minute lessons as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
Our lessons follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:
We ensure that any child who needs additional practice is identified early and has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace.
These videos show parents how we teach your child specific aspects of phonics in class.
The resources on this page will help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school and feel confident about supporting their reading at home. Find our full Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview here to see what your child will learn and when.
Support For Phonics
These three videos show you how to pronounce the sounds. Notice how the children don’t add an ‘uh’ sound at the end, so they say: ‘t’ not ‘tuh’. Use the downloadable information to help your child remember how to write their letters and say their sounds.
Download a guide to how children are taught to say their sounds in Reception Autumn 1 & 2:
Download a guide on how children are taught to write capital letters:
Download a guide to how children are taught to say their sounds in Reception Spring 1:
Free phonics and reading games:
Phonics Play
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
Teach your Monster to Read
https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
Roy the Zebra
