Phonics is the systematic teaching of the sounds, or ‘phonemes’, that accompany the written letters ‘graphemes’ in English. It is designed to teach children to become confident and fluent readers by the end of Year 2.
At Acton Garden Primary we use the “Little Wandle Letters and Sounds” programme to teach phonics in daily structured lessons throughout Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Some children require support with learning phonics for longer and we use the Little Wandle intervention or catch up groups with selected children up to Year 6.
The Little Wandle website has lots of videos to explain the programme and offers you effective techniques to practice with your child/ren at home.
All children in Year 1 will undertake a statutory phonics screening check. This is a short assessment to make sure that children have learnt phonics to an appropriate standard.
The phonics check consists of 40 words, 20 real words and 20 pseudo or nonsense words. The children will use their phonic knowledge to blend and read the words.
If the words are not real words, they will have a picture of an alien next to them to show the children they are nonsense words.
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