Phonics
At Greenacres, we know that reading is the key to success and underpins children's access to the curriculum, it clearly impacts on their achievement. To be able to read, children need to be taught an efficient strategy to decode words. That strategy is phonics.
We teach all children to read using a systematic, structured phonics programme (Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised), starting in Nursery with foundational skills and continuing in Reception and Year 1 with daily phonics lessons.
Phonic decoding skills must be practised until children become automatic and fluent and reading is established. To ensure this for every child we;
- Immerse our Reception and Nursery children in Phase 1 phonics, where our children explore sounds through songs, stories, and play, helping them develop the early skills they need as a strong foundation.
- Teach phonics daily with keep-up and catch-up support for children who need extra help.
- Focus on decoding, prosody, and comprehension, building fluency across all reading sessions.
- Reading practice five times a week with books matched to each child’s phonics knowledge.
- Promote home reading to reinforce skills and foster a love of reading.
Children need to learn to read as quickly and reasonably as possible, so that they can move from learning to read, to reading to learn, giving them access to the treasure house of reading. Our goal is that by the end of Year 1, all children are confident readers, able to tackle unfamiliar words and enjoy reading for pleasure and purpose.
Our expectations of progression are aspirational yet achievable; children who are not keeping up with their peers are given additional practise immediately through keep-up sessions.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) and it is the programme that we adopt. We prioritise the teaching of phonics; we teach phonics daily in Year R and Year 1. It is vitally important that children review and revisit Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs) and words, daily, weekly and across terms and years, in order to move this knowledge into the children's long term memory. Our consistent approach to phonics ensures that children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills.
Children enjoy a range of multi-sensory resources to support their phonics learning. On-going assessment of children's progress takes place and the books children read in school and take home to read are fully decodable and matched to children's secure phonics knowledge.
As well as fully decodable books, children take home a non-decodable book for sharing that can be either read to or with them. These books play an essential role in developing a love of reading; an important distinction is that these books are being shared with the children, but they are using fully phonically decodable books to practise their independent reading.
Please see link below for our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme progression for Reception and Year One.
SEND
Little Wandle SEND Programme is designed to ensure that all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, can access high-quality phonics teaching and make progress in reading.
The programme follows the same systematic, synthetic phonics approach as Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, while offering flexibility, repetition, and additional support to meet individual needs.
Key features include:
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Small steps and overlearning, allowing children to revisit sounds and skills as often confident
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Multi-sensory activities to support different learning styles
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Targeted interventions matched closely to the main phonics programme
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A strong focus on oral blending, segmenting, and language development
The SEND programme supports children to keep up rather than catch up, ensuring they remain included in whole-class learning wherever possible. It also promotes close collaboration between teachers, support staff, and families to provide a joined-up approach to early reading.
Working in Partnership
We recognise the importance of working in partnership with parents and carers to build strong foundations for our children. We are always available if you need to ask us any questions and look forward to welcoming you to our regular phonic open mornings, breakfast is included!
Please see link below for our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme progression for Reception and Year One.
Little Wandle Phonics Overview