Little Wandle
At Oakwood, we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.
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 out children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
Supporting your child with reading
Although your child would be taught to read at school you can have a huge impact on the reader journey by continuing their practise at home.
There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:
Reading practise book
This book has been carefully matched to your child's current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don't worry that it's too easy -your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise - celebrate their success! If they can't read a word read it to them. After they have finished talk about the book together.
Sharing book
To encourage your child to become a lifelong reader it's important that you learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book that they have chosen for you to enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn't expect your child to read this alone. Read it to them or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what happened next, use different voices for the characters, explore facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is you have fun!
Phonics Screening Check
In Year one, your child will have a Government Led, phonics screening check, this is normally held around June. The purpose of the check is to confirm whether individual children have learnt decoding and blending skills to meet an age-appropriate standard. The phonics screening contains 40 words and your child will work one-to-one with the teacher, reading words out aloud. There will be a combination of real words and nonsense words.
There is not a set time limit to complete the screening in but it usually takes between 4-9 minutes. If your child's teacher thinks it would be appropriate, your child can have a break or stop if they are struggling. If your child does not meet the pass mark they will have to retake the screening test in Year 2. (You will be informed on their end of year school report on this).
By the end of year 1 it is expected that children are able to recognise the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, segment and blend them confidently in words. For the past few years the expected pass mark has been 32 out of 40. However, the Department for Education does not release the pass mark until a few weeks after the children have completed the check.
Here are some tips to help children of all ages to enjoy reading and to get reading more often.
- Take breaks while reading.
- Build reading into your child's daily routine.
- Encourage your child to follow their interests.
- Use technology together.
- Encourage your child to be the author, retell or make up stories.
- Have a chat.
Listening to your child reading is important. However, your child hearing your read or tell a story is just as important. This will support them to develop new vocabulary, learn how to use expression in their voice. Encourage your child to decode the sounds e.g. segmenting or drawing on sound buttons. When you are out and about read signs around you. Practise speed reading the sounds your child has been learning in school.
My child won’t read, no matter what I do. How can I help?
- Read to your child as much as possible
- Don’t make an issue out of it
- Talk to your child’s class teacher - working together will help
Useful Terminology
blend – to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap.
digraph – A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, which is represented by two letters like ‘ow’ as in ‘s-n-ow’ reading ‘snow’.
grapheme – A grapheme is a letter or a number of letters which represent a sound (phoneme) in a word.
grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) – the relationship between sounds and the letters which represent those sounds; also known as ‘letter-sound correspondences’. This means that your child will be able to recognise and/or identify the written form of a letter when listening to the sound.
phoneme – A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech, this may be one letter, or a group of two or three letters which make one sound.
segment – to split up a word into its individual phonemes (sounds) in order to spell it, e.g. the word ‘cat’ has three phonemes: c – a – t,
sound buttons – the number of phonemes (sounds) in a word, your child will be encouraged to draw a dot under a single letter to denote the number of sounds, if it is a digraph they will underline both sounds instead of drawing a dot. For example ai in snail.
split digraph – two letters (consonants), split by another letter (vowel), but which make one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site.
trigraph – A trigraph is a phoneme which consists of three letters like ‘air’ as in ‘hair‘. 3 letters making 1 sound.