At STM we follow the Little Wandle programme which concentrate 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 and Year 1 teach phonics daily five times a week (with a lesson on the Friday, which is designed to consolidate the children's learning) and follow the DfE structure:

1. Revisit and Review

2. Teach and Practice

3. Practise and Apply

Any pupils (including those pupils in Year 2 and 3) who need continued support with phonics have daily intervention tailored to their knowledge around the phase they are currently working on.

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 need to be given regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned to reading 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.

Parent Resources