Phonics & Assessments

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (SEND)

Our approach to early reading is built on the Little Wandle Foundations for Phonics and Letters and Sounds Revised SEND programme. The intent is to ensure every child develops the essential phonological, phonemic and early language skills needed to become a confident, fluent reader. Foundations for Phonics provides a structured pre‑phonics pathway that prepares children for formal GPC teaching through high‑quality rhyme, rhythm, listening and sound‑discrimination activities.

Foundations for Phonics

Little Wandle Foundations for Phonics is a structured pre‑phonics programme that develops children’s phonological and phonemic awareness before formal phonics teaching begins. It builds early reading readiness through two strands:

  • Rhyme Time — develops children’s awareness of rhyme, shared language, and sound patterns in words.
  • Tuning into Sounds — teaches early phonological and phonemic skills through games that focus on listening, identifying, and manipulating sounds.

This stage ensures children enter Phase 2 with secure auditory skills and readiness for blending and segmenting.

Progression Through Phases 2–5

Little Wandle follows a carefully sequenced progression from simple to more complex GPCs, prioritising those most frequent in early reading. Graphemes are practised in words, sentences, and fully decodable books. Daily, weekly, and long‑term review ensures knowledge is embedded into long‑term memory.

Teaching follows the Little Wandle progression with fidelity:

 

Phase 2

Focus: Introducing the first set of GPCs and early blending/segmenting alongside key tricky words.

Graphemes: 

s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b l f j v w x y z qu ch sh th ng nk

words with –s (/s/ and /z/) endings

Tricky words: 

and, is, I, the, as, put, pull, full, her, his, has, no, go, to, into, we, me, be, he, of, she, push

 

Phase 3

Focus: extends children’s knowledge through teaching digraphs/trigraphs and reading longer words.

Graphemes: 

ai oa ar er ear ee oo or ow air igh oo ur oi

double letters, longer words, words with –s /z/ in the middle, words with –es endings

Tricky words: 

was, my, are, you, by, sure, they, all, pure

 

Phase 4

Focus: No new GPCs are taught in phase 4; pupils practice blending and segmenting adjacent consonants to consolidate their learning.

Content: 

CVCC words (e.g., hand), progressing to longer words with long vowels, two syllables, and multiple adjacent consonants (e.g., smartest).

Tricky words: 

today, said, some, were, so, come, here, have, love, little, like, do, says, there, out, when, what, one

 

Phase 5

Focus: Broadening GPC knowledge and alternative spellings/pronunciations enabling flexible, confident decoding .

Graphemes: 

A wide range of alternative spellings for /ai/, /ee/, /igh/, /oa/, /oo/, /ur/, /or/, /j/, /sh/, /air/, /z/, /l/, /v/, /u/, /o/, /w/ and more, including split digraphs (a‑e, i‑e, o‑e, u‑e) and less common spellings (ph, ce, dge, ti, ci, are, se, le, ve).

Tricky words: 

their, people, oh, your, Mr, Mrs, Ms, ask, could, should, would, our, house, mouse, water, want, any, many, again, who, whole, where, two, school, call, different, thought, through, friend, work, once, laugh, because, eye, busy, beautiful, pretty, move, improve, parents, shoe

 

All new learning is practised in words, sentences and fully decodable books matched precisely to each child’s secure GPC knowledge. Daily review, weekly recap and long‑term retrieval practice ensure knowledge is embedded into long‑term memory.

Teachers use consistent lesson structures, precise modelling, and corrective feedback. Assessment is ongoing and informs immediate intervention for any child.

Children develop strong phonological foundations, enabling rapid progress once formal phonics begins.

Pupils move through the GPC progression securely, with misconceptions addressed quickly through targeted keep‑up sessions.

Decodable reading books are closely matched to children’s taught knowledge, ensuring success and fluency.

 

Please follow the link to access the Little Wandle Parent section on the website: Little Wandle for Parents