At Birtley House School we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Programme to teach Phonics and Reading. We believe that reading is a key life skill that is extremely important especially in children’s early development. Little Wandle progression teaches children sounds and blending, tackling tricky words and develops reading comprehension skills. Phonics is crucial for all areas of the curriculum and we incorporate our phonics learning throughout our day.
Phonics & Reading Policy – November 2025
Daily Phonics
We teach daily phonics lessons of 20 minutes for all children at the school. We follow an adapted version of the Little Wandle progression grid to ensure all children are able to access the programme. Children either take part in a 20 minute session working on one of the ‘phases’ or in a ‘fluency’ session.
Reading Practice
Reading is taught alongside the phonics learning using book matched to the Little Wandle Letters and sounds progression.
Each reading session as a clear focus and is separated into the 3 key reading skills: decoding, prosody and comprehension.
Fluency
‘Fluency’ is a programme for confident readers who have demonstrated they have achieved all 5 phases.
How to say sounds documents
How to write capital letters
Tricky words support
Tricky words for parents – Phase 2
Tricky words for parents – Phase 3
Tricky words for parents – Phase 4
Tricky words for parents – Phase 5
Grapheme mats
