English - Phonics/Reading

At Trafalgar, we teach phonics through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. This is one of the Department for Education's validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programmes. 

Phonics is a way of learning to read based on learning to match sounds to a letter or group of letters. This can then be applied in their reading and writing. 

Children have daily phonics learning, and we regularly check children's learning to ensure that we identify those who would benefit from extra practise as quickly as possible. 

Little Wandle identifies reading as having 3 core strands:

1. 'Decoding': Reading the words on the page through application of your phonics knowledge.
2. 'Prosody': Reading with 'expression'. This is all about timing, phrasing and use of tone. 
3. 'Comprehension': Understanding what the words/sentences/paragraphs mean.

To develop these key reading skills in school, we teach using Little Wandle's scheme books matched exactly to their phonics teaching. 

Your child will regularly borrow and bring home a Little Wandle scheme book matched to their current phonics learning. This is for your child to read to and with you, and develop these core 3 skills. 

We also have regular story times to develop a love for reading for pleasure, and your child will (in addition to their Little Wandle book) regularly borrow and bring home a school library book. This is for you to read to and with your child to explore and enjoy together. You can also borrow story sacks for the same purpose, and we also have a digital on-line library which you can access from home 24/7, filled with many reading resources.