How we teach phonics

Nursery

In Nursery, children follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ‘Foundations for Phonics.’ This phase gives children the time to ‘tune in’ to the sounds around them and develop their oral blending and language skills through stories and rhymes. Children participate in lots of games, such as What’s in the Box? and What’s that noise?

Reception

During their time in Reception, the children take part in daily phonics lessons. These gradually build up from 10 minutes lessons to 30-minute lessons – additional oral blending games are also weaved into the day too. Four new phonemes and their corresponding grapheme are taught each week and a review lesson then takes place at the end of the week.

Year 1

In Year 1, the children continue to take part in daily phonics lessons. The children initially revisit phase 2, 3 and 4 before moving onto phase 5. The children will also complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check during the Summer Term. 

Year 2

In Year 2, the children begin 'Little Wandle Spelling.' 

Reading practice sessions

The children also take part in reading practice sessions 3 times per week, these will begin once a child is able to blend sounds to read simple words. Any child that is not blending will be given additional blending practice to enable them to keep up with the curriculum. Each session has a different focus, decoding, prosody and comprehension. Once your child’s class teacher has read the book with your child at school, it is then sent home so that children can develop their reading fluency further.

What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?

The Phonic Screening Check is a statutory assessment that takes place in Year to ensure children are making sufficient progress in their decoding and blending skills. The check consists of 40 words, which are a mixture of real words and pseudo words, which your child may refer to as alien words. If your child does not reach the expected standard in Year 1, they will receive some additional support and retake the Phonics Screening Check in Year 2.