Phonics

Being able to spot the sounds that letters make when they are with other letters is vital for helping children to learn to read. Children also need to match the correct graphemes to sounds so they can become confident spellers.

At Sacred Heart, the teaching of phonics is taught explicitly throughout Foundation Stage and Year 1. Daily lessons are taught following the Little Wandle Letters & Sounds revised scheme that has been validated by the Department for Education and Skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic synthetic programme for teaching phonic skills to children.  We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the phonics screening check. If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading / writing gaps.

In Year 1, every child will have a phonics screening test in the Summer Term. We will invite parents in for an information meeting prior to the test to let you know how the test will take place and share ideas of how you can support your children at home.  The test is a way for teachers to assess the progress children are making in their phonic knowledge and informs them how best to support that child in the future. Regular reading is the best way to support your child at home.

Little Wandle has a dedicated parent’s page with some excellent resources and videos for parents to access in order to support children with their learning. You can access these resources by clicking on the link below.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/