We are a Little Wandle School!

Over 80% of our children passed their Phonics Screening in 2023!

We are incredibly proud to be a Little Wandle School.

We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code. This supports them in mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.  Our aim is to ensure that all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Hamp Nursery and Infant School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. We ensure that all learners are given the time, space, and quality teaching to progress and develop their early reading and phonological awareness skills. As the children progress and learn new sounds, they will be exposed to reading these new sounds in words, sentences and longer texts.

The Foundation for Phonics in Nursery

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include; sharing high-quality stories and poems, learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes, activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending and attention to high-quality language. We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Daily Phonics in Reception and KS1

Phonics is taught twice a day. Sessions are around 20-30 minutes long depending on the needs of the children. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.  Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress.

• Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
• Children in Year 1 review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
• Where necessary, children will continue to practise and develop their phonic knowledge during phonics sessions in Year 2.

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

Any child who needs additional practise 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. We timetable double phonics daily for all children in Reception and Key Stage 1 and provide additional Keep-up sessions for those that need it to support their reading journey and to support them in maintaining at an age-related expectation.

We use a consistency approach in our planning and assessment formats so that all teachers use the daily assessment sheet to track children’s progress and identify instant keep up required later that day.

Little Wandle Spellings 

In Year 2, once the children have completed Phase 5 of their phonics and are confident with their sounds, we introduce the Little Wandle Spelling Programme.   This provides a seamless link from the core Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Programme to teaching spelling in Year 2.

It includes:

• A Phase 5 Review – Reviewing and securing Phase 5 phonics.
• A bridge to spelling – Teaching the children the foundational skills for spelling.
• Spelling Lessons – Teaching to create confident spellers, ensuring complete coverage of the Year 2 spelling requirements.