Every phonics programme approved by the Department for Education teaches the same thing: the 44 sounds of English and the letter patterns that represent them. What differs is the order the sounds are introduced, the terminology used, and the teaching materials.

It helps to know which programme your child's school uses, because home support works best when it follows the same sequence. A child moving between approved programmes adjusts within a few weeks, but day-to-day at home, a little alignment goes a long way.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

The programme most English primary schools now use.

Little Wandle is used in roughly 5,500 state primary schools in England. It was developed by the Wandle Learning Trust and Little Sutton Primary School and validated by the Department for Education in 2021.

Source: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, official site, 2026

What it is

Little Wandle teaches phonics systematically, starting in the first week of Reception and continuing to the end of Year 1. Children in Year 2 are expected to be past the programme and working on spelling patterns. Children still behind at that point receive a separate Rapid Catch-up programme.

How it is structured

Little Wandle groups the phonics code into five phases.

  • Phase 1 is pre-school listening and sound awareness.
  • Phase 2 (Reception, autumn) introduces single letters and a handful of two-letter sounds.
  • Phase 3 (Reception, spring) introduces more two- and three-letter sounds and the first digraphs.
  • Phase 4 (Reception, summer) practises combining sounds in longer words.
  • Phase 5 (Year 1, whole year) covers alternative spellings and pronunciations.

The terminology you will encounter

Grapheme means a letter or group of letters representing a sound. Phoneme means the sound itself. GPC stands for grapheme-phoneme correspondence, the pairing of a written pattern with a spoken sound. Digraph and trigraph mean two-letter and three-letter graphemes respectively (ch, igh, air). Tricky words are common words not fully decodable at the child's current phase and are learned by sight, a few at a time.

How to find out if your school uses it

Ask the class teacher, check the school website, or look at the reading practice books that come home. Little Wandle books are published by Collins under the 'Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' banner and often carry that logo on the cover.

How to support it at home

Use the decodable book the school sends. Let your child sound out unfamiliar words. Match the sounds the school has taught so far; the 'Phase' marker on the book tells you which ones. Do not teach ahead. The Little Wandle website has free pronunciation videos for parents, recorded by the programme's own teachers.

Other schemes you may hear about

If your school uses one of the programmes below, the programme name is usually the best search term for its own parent resources.

Read Write Inc.

Oxford University Press · often called 'RWI'

The most widely used phonics programme in England, in roughly a third of primary schools. Distinctive character-based mnemonics for each sound, and children are usually grouped by ability within the year and reassessed every few weeks.

Bug Club Phonics

Pearson · validated

A validated programme published by Pearson, often paired with the wider Bug Club reading scheme and an online component. Less common than Little Wandle or RWI.

Jolly Phonics

Jolly Learning · since the 1990s

One of the oldest synthetic phonics programmes in the UK. Each sound has its own song and action. Still used in some Reception settings and widely used internationally.

Sounds-Write

Linguistic phonics · UK

A linguistic phonics programme that teaches from the start that one sound can be spelled several ways. Well regarded in specialist and SEN settings; used by a smaller number of mainstream schools.

The original Letters and Sounds

DfE · 2007 framework

The government's 2007 framework, used widely for over a decade. Most schools have moved to Little Wandle or another validated revision; an unrevised 2007 version is now unusual.

How to find out which scheme your school uses

Ask the class teacher, check the school website, or look at the reading practice books that come home. The book covers usually carry the programme's logo or branding. If you are still unsure, the most reliable answer is the teacher's.