At Ripple, we know that our pupils get the most out of their education when their family supports their learning in partnership with us. We recognise that not all of our families understand how our subjects are taught and we are sensitive to the fact that many of our families are unfamiliar with the British curriculum, so we host regular events for them to attend to develop their understanding of what and how their children are learning at different stages of their learning and in different curriculum areas. Phonics is no exception with frequent opportunities to share the value of phonics in their children’s education.

Our approach to phonics through Little Wandle is shared with the Ripple community at open mornings and workshops.  This includes information about why we teach phonics, how we teach phonics and ideas for how families can help their children at home.  Everyone is welcome to attend, no matter what year group their child is in, and feedback from our community is always positive, so please do pop along and join us the next time you see one advertised. Our events are always informal and relaxed, with the intention of any of our events being to support our community to support their children. We want to create a relaxed environment where our guests feel safe and comfortable to ask questions about things they do not know, because, as we said at the beginning, we know that our pupils get the most out of their education when their family supports their learning in partnership with us.  

We hope to see you at an event soon! 

In the meantime, the Little Wandle website is home to a wide range of very useful resources aimed at helping our families to support their children to correctly say their sounds (phonemes) and write their letters (graphemes).  Lots of these useful documents can be found in the "Help and Further Information" section (found from the main Phonics menu on this website). In addition, the website also shares some very useful videos demonstrating how Little Wandle pupils are taught, which we hope makes our families feel confident about supporting their children’s reading at home. 

More information can be found on this Little Wandle leaflet for parents.