At Widden Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.
We start teaching phonics in Nursery and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all of our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.
At Widden Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of phonics lessons and across the curriculum.
We follow the advised lesson structure which is divided into four parts:
1. Revisit and Review – previous phonemes and tricky words.
2. Teach and Practise – new phonemes, tricky words and oral blending.
3. Practise and apply - apply the phonemes and tricky words into reading and writing contexts
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is taught as a whole class and all children are taught the same sound. Any children who are still struggling with a sound are provided with small group/1:1 intervention to help them to catch up. Any children who grasp the sounds particularly quickly are challenged with longer, polysyllabic words. Children in KS2, who still require phonics teaching continue to follow Little Wandle through the rapid catch up intervention.