Phonics
PHONICS INFORMATION
At Wetheringsett C of E Primary School, we use a scheme called 'Little Wandle' to introduce and teach phonics to our reception children.
Children begin the 'Little Wandle' programme at the start of Reception when they learn individual sounds. The children then move on to sound blending and segmenting and are introduced to graphemes and diagraphs. From here, children learn to read and write words and sentences using their knowledge of letter sounds.
Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 phonemes in English (it depends on different accents). Phonemes can be put together to make words.
Grapheme - A way of writing down a phoneme. Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. tch or 4 letters e.g ough.
Digraph - A grapheme containing two letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).
Trigraph - A grapheme containing three letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).
The teaching of Phonics continues in Year 1 when the children undertake the National Phonics Screening Check at the end of the year. Phonics knowledge is consolidated throughout Year 2 and beyond.
What is Little Wandle?
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools and recognised by the DfE. It is based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum.
For further information click here;
Click on the link for lots of great ideas to help your child with his/her phonic skills;
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.gov.uk/education/phonics