Phonics

At St Michael’s, we believe that every child can become a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader. Early reading is a priority because secure decoding and fluency give children access to the wider curriculum and open the door to knowledge, vocabulary, imagination and future opportunities.

We teach early reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, a validated systematic synthetic phonics programme. We follow the programme with fidelity so that children build securely and cumulatively on their knowledge of the alphabetic code.

Our ambition is that all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND, children learning English as an additional language and pupils who join us at different points, receive the precise teaching and support they need to become successful readers. Where gaps are identified, support is immediate, systematic and closely matched to the Little Wandle progression. 

Foundations for Phonics in Nursery

In Nursery, children follow Little Wandle Foundations as part of our wider Communication and Language and Literacy provision.

Children experience:

• high-quality stories, poems and nursery rhymes
• focused listening and attention activities
• oral blending
• rhyme, alliteration and awareness of sounds
• rich vocabulary and high-quality adult interaction
• opportunities to develop speaking, listening and back-and-forth conversation.

Our Nursery provision builds the foundations children need to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences and blending successfully in Reception. Formal Reception phonics is not brought down into Nursery. 

Daily Phonics in Reception and Year 1

Formal phonics teaching begins in Week 2 of Reception.

Children receive a daily phonics lesson of approximately 30 minutes. Reception lessons build gradually from shorter sessions, alongside additional oral blending practice, until children are ready for the full lesson.

Each Friday, children review the week’s learning to secure automaticity and fluency.

In Reception, children learn Phase 2 and Phase 3 GPCs and progress to reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants in Phase 4.

In Year 1, children review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught Phase 5 GPCs, developing increasing accuracy and fluency. 

Keeping Up from the Start

We believe that children should keep up rather than have to catch up later.

Assessment for Learning identifies children who need additional practice as soon as a need emerges. Children in Reception and Year 1 receive Daily Keep-up, taught by a fully trained adult.

Daily Keep-up follows the same Little Wandle progression, routines, language and resources as the main lesson but uses smaller steps, additional modelling and more repetition.

Keep-up is additional to the daily phonics lesson, not a replacement for it. 

Phonics and Spelling in Year 2

At the beginning of Year 2, assessment is used to ensure children have securely completed the Year 1 Little Wandle progression.

Any gaps are addressed through continued daily phonics teaching. Once Year 1 content is secure, children complete the five-week Phase 5 review, followed by Little Wandle Bridge to Spelling and the Little Wandle spelling units.

Children who still have significant gaps in their phonic knowledge follow Rapid Catch-up instead, ensuring that they receive the decoding teaching they need before moving on. 

Rapid Catch-up in Years 2–6

Children in Year 2 and above who have insecure phonic knowledge or have not met the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check are assessed and receive Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up where appropriate.

Rapid Catch-up sessions:

• take place daily
• last approximately 15–20 minutes
• identify and teach precise gaps in phonic knowledge
• use Little Wandle resources and routines consistently
• are taught at pace so pupils can catch up quickly.

Pupils following Rapid Catch-up are reassessed every four weeks so that teaching can be adapted and progress closely monitored. 

Reading Practice Sessions

Children learn to apply their phonics through three reading practice sessions each week, taught by a fully trained adult.

Books are carefully matched to each child’s secure phonic knowledge so that children can practise successfully rather than encounter large amounts of untaught code.

Each reading practice sequence develops three important areas:

• Decoding – applying phonic knowledge accurately
• Prosody – reading with appropriate expression and understanding
• Comprehension – understanding and discussing what has been read.

Children read the same carefully matched book three times in school to develop accuracy, automaticity, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

In Reception, reading practice begins by Week 4 of phonics teaching at the latest. Pupils following Rapid Catch-up use the Little Wandle 7+ fully decodable books, which follow the same progression but are designed to be appropriate for older readers. 

Developing Fluency

For children in Year 2 and above who have completed the core programme but still require structured support to become fluent readers, we use Little Wandle Fluency.

These sessions develop:

• reading speed and accuracy
• vocabulary
• prosody
• repeated reading
• comprehension through discussion.

Reading speed and accuracy are assessed regularly so pupils receive the correct level of support and books. 

Supporting Every Reader

Our ambition is the same for every child.

Children with SEND, disadvantaged pupils, children with EAL and other vulnerable readers receive high-quality systematic teaching and rapid additional support when needed.

We remain faithful to the Little Wandle approach and do not teach children to guess words from pictures, context or initial letters. Where children need additional support, adults increase modelling, repetition and opportunities to practise while maintaining the same core routines and phonics progression.

Reasonable adjustments are made where necessary so that children can access teaching without reducing the ambition of the curriculum. 

Reading at Home

Once children have successfully read their decodable reading-practice book in school, they take it home to practise and celebrate their success with their family.

Children also take home a separate Reading for Pleasure book to share with an adult. This book is chosen for enjoyment and discussion and is not expected to be independently decodable.

We support parents and carers through Little Wandle resources and school communication so that families understand how phonics is taught, how children learn to blend and how they can support reading at home. 

Phonics Screening Check

All eligible children in Year 1 complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check.

The check helps confirm how securely children can apply their phonic knowledge when reading unfamiliar words. Children who do not yet meet the expected standard continue to receive systematic phonics support and normally retake the check in Year 2.

We do not use the Screening Check in isolation. Little Wandle assessment, classroom performance and reading fluency are all used to identify children’s strengths and next steps. 

Assessment and Monitoring

Children’s phonics knowledge is assessed carefully throughout the programme.

Little Wandle summative assessments are completed approximately every six weeks in Reception and Year 1. Children who are not on track are reassessed approximately every three weeks, while pupils following Rapid Catch-up are assessed every four weeks.

Assessment is analysed at GPC, word, tricky-word and sentence level so that gaps can be identified precisely and additional teaching can be targeted effectively. 

The Early Reading Leader and Senior Leadership Team regularly monitor phonics teaching, reading practice, book matching, assessment and the impact of additional support to ensure that our provision remains consistent and effective. 

Phonics and Early Reading Policy

For further information about how phonics and early reading are taught at St Michael’s, please read our Phonics and Early Reading Policy below.

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Support for Parents

Click here to watch videos of how to say the Reception and Year 1 sounds.

Click here to watch videos to show you how we teach phonics.

Click here to watch the Nursery Rhyme videos we use for Foundations for Phonics in Nursery.