Phonics & Spelling
Phonics and Spelling at Our Lady of the Rosary
At Our Lady of the Rosary, we are passionate about ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader and writer. We teach phonics and early reading through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, which provides a clear, systematic way to teach children how to read and spell.
The programme is grounded in current research about the neuroscience of reading by experts such as Daniel Willingham (The Reading Mind, Jossey Bass 2017) and Stanislas Dehaene (Reading in the Brain, Penguin Books 2010 and How We Learn, Penguin Books 2021).
Foundations for Phonics in Nursery
In our Nursery, children follow the Foundations for Phonics aspect of the Little Wandle programme. This provides rich, engaging experiences in oral blending, sound discrimination, and language development. Through songs, rhymes, stories, and play, children develop the essential listening and attention skills that prepare them for formal phonics teaching in Reception.
Our Approach to Phonics
Phonics is taught daily in Reception and Year 1 using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds progression. Lessons are fast-paced, engaging, and carefully sequenced to introduce new sounds (known as grapheme–phoneme correspondences) while revisiting and consolidating previous learning. Children are taught to:
- Recognise the sounds that letters and groups of letters make
- Blend sounds together to read words
- Segment words into sounds to spell them accurately
Each session follows a consistent structure of revisiting, teaching, practising, and applying. Children who need additional support are identified quickly and receive ‘keep-up’ sessions that mirror the structure of the main teaching.
Phonics teaching continues into Year 2, where children consolidate and apply their knowledge as they move towards more complex spelling patterns and fluent reading.
Reading Practice
Children also take part in group reading practice sessions three times each week using fully decodable books that are closely matched to their current phonics knowledge. This ensures every child experiences success and develops fluency, accuracy, and confidence. These same books are then sent home to help parents celebrate and reinforce their child’s reading progress.
From Phonics to Spelling
In Year 2, children continue their journey through the Little Wandle Spelling programme, which builds directly on their phonics knowledge and introduces key spelling patterns and rules.
As children move into Key Stage 2, spelling is taught through the No Nonsense Spelling programme. This complements Little Wandle by providing a structured, systematic approach that develops children’s understanding of spelling patterns, rules, and strategies. Teaching focuses on exploring word structure, prefixes and suffixes, and strategies for remembering more complex spellings. This ensures clear continuity from early phonics to confident, independent spelling.
Supporting Every Child
We believe that all children can become successful readers and writers. Through high-quality, consistent teaching and timely intervention, we ensure that every learner is supported to make strong progress and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Working in Partnership with Parents
We know that children make the greatest progress when school and home work closely together. Parents are encouraged to take an active role in supporting early reading and spelling through shared reading and simple practice at home.
Each week, children bring home a decodable reading book matched to their current phonics knowledge so they can apply what they have learned in school with confidence. We also share Little Wandle parent resources, including pronunciation videos and sound mats, to help families use the same consistent language and strategies that we use in class.
As children move into Key Stage 2, families can continue to support spelling at home by practising word lists, talking about spelling patterns, and noticing how words are built from familiar roots and affixes. Together, we build confident, motivated readers and writers who take pride in their progress.