Phonics Hub
Welcome to our Phonics Hub, a one-stop shop to find all the links you need to help your child with their phonics at home!
If you have any questions about your child's phonics or reading, please speak to their teacher or contact Miss Hobson, our Phonics and Early Reading Leader.
We're a Little Wandle school
We're a Little Wandle school
Throughout school, we use the new, revised Little Wandle Letters and Sounds approach.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum and preparing your children to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check.
Top Tips for Reading at Home
Why is Phonics Important?
Phonics is just a way of teaching children to read by using sounds.
Think of it like a secret code. Every letter has a sound. When your child learns these sounds, they can "glue" them together to read almost any word. Reading helps your child use their imagination, learn new things, and do well at school.
3 Top Tips for Reading at Home
You are your child's first and favourite teacher! Here are three easy ways to help them:
- Keep it short and sweet: You don’t need to read for a long time. Just 5 minutes every day is perfect. Try reading before bed or even while eating breakfast.
- Play with sounds: When you see a word, help your child say each sound slowly. For the word cat, you would say c-a-t. Then, try to "speed it up" to say the whole word together. This is called blending.
- Talk about the pictures: Reading isn't just about the words on the page. Look at the pictures together and ask, "What do you think will happen next?" or "How is that character feeling?" This makes reading feel like a fun game rather than a chore.
Remember: It’s okay if you or your child gets stuck! Just stay positive, give them the word, and keep going. The most important thing is that they enjoy spending time with you.
What we teach and when
Tricky Words
For each phase, we teach children some tricky words. These are words that cannot be broken up (decoded) like the other words in each phase.
These words are taught gradually over the year.
*These tricky words may not be tricky in some regional pronunciations.
| Year and phase | Tricky words |
|---|---|
| Reception - Phase 2 | is I the put* pull* full* as and has his her go no to into she push* he of we me be |
| Reception – Phase 3 | was you they my by all are sure pure |
| Reception - Phase 4 | said so have like some come love do were here little says there when what one out today |
| Year 1 - Phase 5 |
their people oh your Mr Mrs Ms ask* could would should our house mouse water want any many again who whole where two school call different thought through friend work once laugh because eye busy beautiful pretty hour move improve parents shoe |
Links to Little Wandle videos
Click here to access Little Wandle's support for parents and carers.
To help you at home, use the links below. Little Wandle have shared loads of helpful videos you can watch with your child at home!
Nursery
In Nursery, we share lots of stories and Nursery rhymes with children throughout the year.