At Westfield, we teach early reading using the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' scheme. This is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme which draws on the latest research into how children learn best and ensure learning stays in children’s long-term memory.
We start teaching phonics in Nursery and Reception and follow the Little Wandle progression framework which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell. We aim for all children to learn to read as quickly as reasonably possible, so they can move from learning to read, to reading to learn.
The programme overview below shows the progression of grapheme-phoneme correspondence and tricky words that we teach term-by-term. The progression has been organised so that children are taught from the simple to more complex, as well as taking into account the frequency of their occurrence in the most commonly encountered words. All the graphemes taught are practised in words, sentences, and later on, in fully decodable books. Children review and revise these daily, weekly and across terms and years, in order to move this knowledge into their long-term memory.
Supporting your child at home:
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.
Each week, your child will bring home a new reading book. This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. Listening to your child read this book four times a week will greatly impact on their progress. Remember to give them lots of praise and celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, help them to sound it out or read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together. All of our books have questions and discussion points in them to give you some ideas.
The following resources will also help you to support your child at home: