We use the ‘Little Wandle’ scheme for the teaching of phonics and guided reading. The sessions are simple and repetitive and reduce cognitive overload so the children can focus on the learning, the GPCs (the sounds the letters make and the letters that make them), blending, reading words and tricky words, writing and spelling.

Guided reading takes place three times a week for every group:

1. In the first session, the children are shown the GPCs they will encounter in the book, they are taught the tricky words and the contextual words- the words that are specific to that book. They then decode the book out loud. These books need to be at the level of the child’s reading so they are fluent and can read smoothly without the need of sounding out.

2. The second session promotes ‘prosody’ which is using expression to read.

3. The final session focusses on comprehension of the book, ensuring the children understand what it is about. They answer questions and retrieve information from the book.

We have bought 120 new sets of books for these sessions that the children use in school. In addition to the books used in school, we have purchased a licence so that parents can view the books as e-books at home to read with their children. These books are allocated once a week. 

Parent Guide to e-books

Have a look at our Little Wandle programme in action at home with one of our youngest pupils from Kings Nympton Primary School: