At St Patrick's we want children to make the connection between their spoken words and the letters that are used to write these words down. To help develop their phonological awareness we provide them with daily phonics sessions and opportunities to practise their skills in the continuous provision.
How Phonics Works In Early Years and KS1
We have chosen 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' as our systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach eary reading and phonics. Children are taught daily phonics as a whole class and those that need extra support follow a 'keep up' programme along side it. Below you can see the progression of how the letters are taught and how children are supported to read and write these letters, digraphs, alternative sounds and words.
The 'Little Wandle' website has a wide range of resources for parents to use, such as 'how to videos' print outs and examples. Click on the link below to access these.
What a phonic session looks like
The phonic sessions are well planned, structured, and follow the same format every time so children know the routine. Within the sessions children read, spell and write using a variety of visual aids to help them progress well. Children begin the programme learning letters, then practise blending to read these letters, before moving onto digraphs, longer words and finally alternative sounds and spelling patterns. Below is a progression overview to show how these are taught across the terms.
