Phonics

At St Mary's, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.

At St Mary's, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

As a school, we appreciate the help parents give with learning how to sound out words. This can be difficult if it is not the way you were taught. Pronunciation needs to be precise so that children learn to blend sounds into words. 

To help you model sounds correctly please follow this link for a demonstration.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

Many technical terms are used and referred to when we teach phonics. These terms can be found in the glossary below and also within the files section on Microsoft Teams for each year group.