Little Wandle Letters & Sounds

At St George's, phonics is taught through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Programme, a structured and systematic approach to teaching phonics.

This programme is based on the latest research about how children learn most effectively, how to help them retain information in their long-term memory, and how to support them in applying their knowledge to become confident readers.

Phonics begins in Nursery, with daily ‘Phase 1’ activities designed to lay the groundwork for future phonics learning. This prepares children for learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences and blending in Reception. In Reception and Year 1, children have daily Little Wandle sessions, with Year 2 continuing these sessions into the Autumn term.

In Reception, children focus on Phase 2 graphemes in the second half of the Autumn term, Phase 3 in the Spring term, and Phase 4 in the Summer term. Year 1 reviews Phases 3 and 4 in the Autumn term before moving on to Phase 5, preparing for the phonics screening check in the summer term. Year 2 revisits Phase 5 in the Autumn term.

Progress is carefully monitored throughout the programme to identify children who may need additional ‘keep up’ sessions. These targeted sessions are tailored to each child's needs and take place during the school day.

Children in Key Stage 2 who still need support will have ‘catch up’ sessions three times a week until they have mastered Phases 1-5 of the phonics programme.

For more information on how phonics is taught and how to support your child at home, visit the Little Wandle for Parents website, which offers helpful videos and detailed guidance for each phase.