Phonics and Early Reading
Our Goal
By the time children leave Manor Primary School, they will be confident, fluent readers with strong comprehensions skills, enabling them to engage with a wide range of texts. Their love of reading, combined with expressive and accurate reading abilities, will support their future learning, critical thinking, and effective communication.
How We Teach Phonics
At Manor Primary School we teach Phonics and Reading using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which has been developed by Wandle and Little Sutton English Hub with other phonics and early reading experts.
Early Years
In Nursery, children develop their listening skills and ability to identify sounds in their environment and words. Through play, games, and nursery rhymes, they build early phonological awareness, including alliteration, rhyming, and sound recognition, laying the foundation for blending. Research shows that this early exposure to nursery rhymes significantly supports language development, with children who learn eight nursery rhymes by age four excelling in reading and spelling by Year 3.
Reception children begin phonics lessons in their second week of school learning Phase 2 phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters representing sounds) and using these to blend and form words. They then progress to Phase 3, learning more complex sounds, including digraphs and trigraphs (sounds made by groups of 2 and 3 letters e.g. ‘sh’ or ‘igh’), before consolidating their learning in Phase 4.
Key Stage 1
In Year One, children consolidate their learning from Reception before progressing to Phase 5, where they explore more complex graphemes and alternative sounds. Toward the end of the year, they take the nationally required Phonics Screening Check to assess their decoding skills.
In Year Two, children continue phonics lessons until they have secure skills in recognizing sounds, decoding words, and reading fluently. They then focus on applying their phonics knowledge to spelling.
Ensuring Every Child Succeeds
Throughout phonics lessons, teachers assess children's understanding and provide 'Keep Up' sessions, either one-to-one or in small groups, to address any gaps or misconceptions. Children are regularly assessed, and any learning gaps are addressed through 'Daily Keep Up' sessions to ensure that no child is left behind,
For children in Year Two and beyond, we deliver a 'Rapid Catch Up' program to provide additional support for those who need to strengthen their phonics skills to become successful readers.
Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) may also follow our SEND Little Wandle Program, which is tailored to their individual needs and taught at a pace which is suitable for each child.
How We Teach Early Reading
Children in Reception through to Year 2 will have three dedicated reading sessions each week, focusing on fluency, prosody (phrasing and intonation), and comprehension. Lessons are taught in small groups using books matched to their phonics level, with each child heard reading by an adult. Each week, children will take home the book they have read in school, along with a library book of their choice.
How To Support Your Child
Throughout your child’s time in Reception and Year 1 there will be opportunities to attend parent workshops to receive detailed information on exactly what your child is learning in school and how you can support this at home.
Phonics uses many terms which may be unfamiliar to you. Here is a glossary of terms used in teaching Phonics that you may find useful.
Consistency in how sounds are pronounced is crucial to your child's learning. To support your child effectively with their reading, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the pronunciation of the sounds they are learning using the link below. There are also videos of how we teach different elements of phonics including tricky words and blending as well as lots of Nursery Rhyme videos.
Little Wandle Resources for Parents