At Farncombe School we use a system of systematic synthetic phonics, which means that we teach children to say all the sounds in a word from left to right. They then blend the sounds together to read the word. For example, coin = c oi n, star = s t ar.  We teach all the sounds used in English through ‘Little Wandle’, using this scheme to organise daily phonics lessons and 3 x weekly reading practice sessions. This creates a coherent journey into reading for our youngest pupils. Parents can access the book that has been read in school that week and consolidate reading the following weekend. This allows children to demonstrate their new found skills and to involve parents in the reading journey.

Little Wandle is used through Reception and Year 1, building up to the Year 1 Phonics Screening test, taken by all Year 1 children each June. Once our pupils have taken this test, we integrate into our book bands, ready for Year 2. Pleasingly, 98% of our Year 2 pupils passed the phonic screening test in Autumn 2021 and 93% Year 1 in June 2022.

Year 2 Letters and Sounds is based on grammar and spelling. However, as needed, phonics revision will be provided for the small minority of children who are not yet secure with all the sounds. We ask Year 2 parents to read with their child at home at least 3 x weekly.