Phonics and Early Reading 

At St Fidelis,  we follow the Little Wandle programme which concentrates on activities to promote speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending.

We teach systematic synthetic phonics from Reception upwards and cover all phases sequentially. As soon as Reception start full time we begin with teaching Phase 2 and teach a set per week.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2  teach phonics daily five times a week and follow the DfE structure:

1. Revisit and Review

2. Teach and Practice

3. Practise and Apply

Any child who needs additional practice 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.

Children are assessed termly against the phase that has been taught to them in order to get a snapshot of progress. This informs planning and next steps for pupils.

Further information and resources can be found at https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Children are  given regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned to read fully decodable books. The phonic progression in books match the progression of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.

The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding

• prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation

• comprehension – understanding the text.

Phonics Resources November 2023

Phonics Resources 2021