Call GLA Tutors on +447944956671 Mon - Sat 8am - 9pm or use our contact form:

Phonics & Early Reading

Unlocking the joy of reading, one sound at a time

We are excited to introduce your child to the world of phonics and early reading. At GLA Tutors, we believe a strong foundation in phonics is key to unlocking reading success. Phonics is the systematic teaching of reading and spelling through letter–sound associations, helping children decode words and understand language rules.

Our experienced tutors tailor engaging lessons to each child’s pace and needs, making learning enjoyable and effective. Whether your child is beginning their reading journey or needs extra support, we are here to help them build confidence and strong phonics skills.

"We have seen real progress over the last six months and a significant change in his ability to concentrate. What has been the most exciting change is his attitude towards learning has greatly improved!"

Charlotte Lethbridge (Trustpilot)

✔ Reception to Year 3
✔ Letters & Sounds
✔ Perfect For Early Intervention
✔ Perfect For Children New to English
✔ Gap Analysis & Reporting
✔ Preparation for Year 1 Phonics Test
✔ 1 to 1 or Shared Session
✔ Small Groups

Click on a subject link to go to that page:

Our Phonics Curriculum Intent

Our phonics and reading tuition is designed with the intent of fostering a strong foundation in literacy skills and cultivating a lifelong love for reading.

We believe that phonics instruction from an early age is essential in helping students develop decoding and word recognition skills, enabling them to become confident and fluent readers as early as possible.

Our curriculum provides systematic and explicit phonics instruction, ensuring that students understand the relationship between letters and sounds, and learn how to blend and segment words effectively. We also emphasise the importance of phonemic awareness, helping students develop an understanding of the individual sounds within words.

Early Readers Curriculum Intent

In addition to phonics instruction, our curriculum focuses on developing comprehension skills, vocabulary expansion, and fostering a love for reading.

We expose students to a wide range of age-appropriate texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and informational texts, enabling them to engage with different genres and styles of writing. We provide opportunities for guided and independent reading, allowing students to practice their skills and develop their reading fluency and comprehension abilities.

Our intent is not only to help students become proficient readers but also to instil in them a lifelong love for reading. We aim to create an engaging and supportive learning experience where students can explore different genres, develop their own reading preferences, and become critical thinkers and confident communicators.

Our instruction promotes reading for pleasure, encouraging students to explore texts beyond the classroom and fosters a lifelong habit of reading.

Click on a subject link to go to that page:

Multi-sensory approach

We make phonics learning truly engaging by using a multi-sensory approach. Children don’t just see the letters and hear the sounds — they also experience them through hands-on and movement-based activities. From using magnetic letters to build words, to playing sound games and incorporating actions or movement activities, each lesson appeals to visual, auditory, and tactile learning styles. This variety helps children connect more deeply with what they are learning, making phonics both memorable and enjoyable.

Visual
Using flashcards, colour-coded magnetic letters, or story picture prompts to match sounds with symbols.

Auditory
Playing sound games, singing phonics songs, and listening for key sounds in words.

Tactile/Kinaesthetic
Forming letters with playdough, tracing letters in sand, or using body movements to act out sounds.

SMall Group Lessons

Parents are welcome to club together and create a small group class with their peers, giving children the chance to learn alongside friends while keeping costs down. Shared sessions not only make tuition more affordable, but also enrich the learning experience — children can collaborate, share ideas, and motivate each other in a supportive environment. Small group sizes ensure every child still receives personalised attention, while benefiting from the energy and interaction of learning together.

BOOK A FREE TRIAL LESSON

How Parents Can Help at Home

Parents play a vital role in supporting early reading, and small daily habits can make a big difference. Spend a few minutes each day practising letter sounds together, share decodable books so your child can apply what they’ve learned, and encourage them to spot sounds and words in everyday places like signs, labels, and shops. Reading aloud to your child, even after they start reading themselves, helps develop vocabulary, comprehension, and a love of stories. Most importantly, keep practice fun, positive, and rewarding — praise effort as much as achievement to build confidence and enjoyment.

Letters and Sounds

At GLA Tutors, we follow the Letters and Sounds (Little Wandle) programme — a structured, systematic approach to teaching children how to read using phonics. Widely used in schools across England, it is divided into six clear phases, beginning with early sound awareness in Phase 1 and building up to confident, fluent reading by Phase 6.

We have chosen Letters and Sounds because of its strengths in developing both decoding and comprehension skills, especially for children learning English as an additional language (EAL). Unlike other schemes such as Read Write Inc., which rely heavily on rote learning of words, Letters and Sounds ensures that children not only learn to read the words but also 'visually' understand their meanings.

This visual and systematic method gives children the chance to embed vocabulary securely, making connections between sounds, spellings, and meanings. As a result, children develop a broader vocabulary and stronger comprehension skills — vital foundations for all future learning.

With our experience teaching in KS1 classrooms that have used both schemes, we are confident that Letters and Sounds offers children the best opportunity to become not just fluent readers, but thoughtful and expressive ones too.

More about How Letters & Sounds is Taught

Phase One

Phase One of the Letters and Sounds scheme of learning for Phonics in England focuses on developing children's listening skills and their ability to discriminate sounds. It is designed to be the initial phase before children begin to learn the sounds of individual letters. During Phase One, children engage in a range of activities to enhance their auditory perception, including listening to environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, and rhythm and rhyme. They also practice oral blending and segmenting of sounds. This phase is crucial in preparing children for the subsequent phases of the Phonics program.

Phase Two

Phase Two introduces children to individual letter sounds. It focuses on teaching children to recognize and decode simple three-letter words. During this phase, children learn the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and begin blending them together to read words. They also learn to segment words into their individual sounds for spelling. Phase Two typically involves interactive activities, games, and resources to make learning engaging and fun. By the end of this phase, children should be able to read and write words using the letter sounds they have learned.

During Phase Two, children learn several important skills related to phonics and early reading. Here are the key skills children typically develop during this phase:

1. Letter Recognition: Children learn to recognise and name the letters of the alphabet. In Phase Two of the Letters and Sounds scheme, children learn the initial sounds of the alphabet. Here are the sounds that children typically learn during this phase:

Set 1: s, a, t, p | Set 2: i, n, m, d | Set 3: g, o, c, k | Set 4: ck, e, u, r | Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

These sounds are taught in a systematic and progressive manner, allowing children to build their phonics knowledge and skills. It is important to note that some sounds are introduced in pairs, such as 'ff' and 'll', to highlight certain sound patterns. By learning these initial sounds, children can begin to blend and segment sounds to read and write simple words. These foundational phonics skills are essential for their development as readers and writers.

2. Blending: Children practice blending individual letter sounds together to read simple three-letter words. For example, they learn to blend the sounds /c/, /a/, and /t/ to read the word "cat."

4. Segmenting: Children learn to break down words into their individual sounds. For example, they segment the word "hat" into the sounds /h/, /a/, and /t/ for spelling.

5. High-Frequency Words: Children begin to learn and recognise a set of high-frequency words that appear frequently in written texts. These words are often not phonetically regular and need to be memorized.

6. Oral Blending and Segmenting: Children practice orally blending and segmenting sounds in words, helping them develop their phonological awareness.

7. Reading and Writing: Children start reading and writing simple words using the letter sounds they have learned. They may use magnetic letters, letter cards, or other manipulatives to support their learning.

These skills provide a foundation for children to develop their reading and writing abilities as they progress through the different phases of the Letters and Sounds scheme.

Phase Three

In Phase Three, children continue to build on their phonics knowledge by learning more sounds and exploring digraphs and trigraphs. Here are the sounds and graphemes that children typically learn during this phase:

1. Set 6: j, v, w, x

2. Set 7: y, z, zz, qu

3. Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng

4. Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

During Phase Three, children also learn to blend and segment longer words with these new sounds and graphemes. They practice reading and spelling words with consonant digraphs and vowel digraphs, which helps to expand their reading and writing abilities. It's important to note that while the focus is on learning new sounds and graphemes, children also continue to revise and consolidate their knowledge of previously learned sounds and high-frequency words.

By the end of Phase Three, children should be able to read and spell words with a variety of digraphs and trigraphs, providing them with a solid foundation for further phonics development.

Phase 4

In Phase Four of the Letters and Sounds scheme, children focus on developing their skills in blending and segmenting longer words. They consolidate their knowledge of previously learned sounds and graphemes and apply them to read and spell more complex words. While Phase Four does not introduce new sounds and graphemes, it places a strong emphasis on blending and segmenting skills.

During Phase Four, children continue to practice reading and spelling words with consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, and trigraphs learned in Phase Three. They also work on blending and segmenting words with adjacent consonants and consonant clusters, such as "bl", "st", and "sp". Additionally, they learn to blend and segment words with initial and final clusters, such as "spl", "scr", and "str".

By the end of Phase Four, children should be able to confidently blend and segment longer words with a range of sounds and graphemes. This prepares them for more complex reading and writing tasks in later phases.

It's important to note that Phase Four also includes continued practice of high-frequency words and sentence reading. This helps children develop fluency and comprehension skills alongside their phonics knowledge.

Here are some of the consonant clusters that children learn in Phase Four:

1. Initial Consonant Clusters:

2. Final Consonant Clusters:

By practicing blending and segmenting words with these consonant clusters, children develop their phonics skills and become more confident readers and spellers. Overall, Phase Four aims to further develop children's phonological awareness, blending and segmenting skills, and their ability to read and spell words with consonant clusters. It sets the foundation for more complex phonics concepts and prepares children for Phase Five of the Letters and Sounds scheme.

Phase Five

In Phase 5a, children learn several new digraphs (two letters that make one sound). Here are the digraphs taught in Phase 5a:

These digraphs are introduced gradually, and children practice blending and segmenting words containing these sounds. They also learn to recognise and read words that contain these digraphs.

Children learn new graphemes (letter or group of letters that represent a sound) and alternative pronunciations for graphemes and then alternative spelling for the same sound. Here is what some schools call the 'alphabet code' and what others call 'sound or phoneme families':

/igh/ family: "igh" (high) | "ie" (pie) | "i-e" (like) | "y" (sky) | "i" (kind)

/air/ family: "air" (hair) | "ear" (pear) | "are" (care)

/ear/ family: "ear" (beard) | "ere" (sphere) | "eer" (deer)

/ou/ family:` "ou" (cloud) | "ow" (down) | "ough" (bough)

/oy/ family: "oy" (toy) | "oi" (coin)

/oa/ family: "oa" (boat) | "ow" (throw) | "oe" (toe) | "o-e" (bone) | "o" (no)

/u/ family: "u" (put) | "oo" (cook) | "oul" (could) | "o" (woman)

/ur/ family: "ur" (burger) | "ir" (bird) | "er" (stern) | "ear" (search)

/yoo/ family: "ue" (argue) | "ew" (stew) | "u-e" (tube)

/e/ family: "e" (egg) | "ea" (head)

These are some of the sounds and graphemes that children learn in Phase Five. There may be additional sounds and graphemes depending on the specific phonics program or curriculum being used.

How to pronounce the phonemes

When introducing children to the first 44 GPCs, it is important to use ‘pure sounds’. ‘Pure sounds’ refers to the way of sounding phonemes without adding an extra ‘uh’, known as a schwa, at the end of each letter. Using pure sounds helps children to blend sounds for reading and segment words for writing, as no extra sounds are accidentally inserted into words.

For example:/s/ is pronounced as ‘sss’ instead of ‘suh’.
/t/ is pronounced as a very short bouncy sound instead of ‘tuh’.

Here is an example of pure sounds.

Level one

Level 1 is the beginning of a child’s phonics journey and will help to develop a foundation for reading and spelling. Within Level 1, children learn about oral sounds and the emphasis is on listening and recognising these. Children are not expected to be able to recognise any written letters or sounds until Level 2. Level 1 is broken down into seven different aspects which are taught alongside each other. Each of the different aspects relates to different sounds that children will learn about.

Aspect 1: General Sound Discrimination - Environmental Sounds Aspect 2: General Sound Discrimination - Instrumental Sounds Aspect 3: Body Percussion
Aspect 4: Rhythm and Rhyme
Aspect 5: Alliteration
Aspect 6: Voice Sounds
Aspect 7: Oral Blending and Segmenting

level Two

In Level 2, children will learn to recognise written letters (graphemes) and their corresponding sounds (phonemes). These may also be referred to as GPCs (grapheme-phoneme correspondences). In phonics, children learn the sounds that a letter makes before they learn letter names. This helps them to use these sounds to read words e.g. ‘a’ for ‘ant’.

They will learn the sounds in a specific order to help them recognise common letters or sounds that are used in words.

Within Level 2, most of the new GPCs taught are individual graphemes but children will also learn some digraphs.

Digraphs are phonemes that are made up of two letters but they only make one sound.

The digraphs taught in Level 2 include ‘ck’, ‘ff’, ‘ll’ and ‘ss’. ‘ck’ is a digraph that is sometimes used as an alternative spelling for ‘c’ or ‘k’ but it makes the same sound. ‘ff’, ‘ll’ and ‘ss’ are similar to ‘f’, ‘l’ and ‘s’ but they make a slightly longer sound. They are often used at the end of words. These may also be referred to as ‘double letters’.

level three

Blending and Segmenting

In Level 3, children will use the previous GPCs that they have learnt in Level 2, along with new GPCs to read CVC words. By this stage, many CVC words will include digraphs or trigraphs, e.g. m-oo-n or ‘n-igh-t’. It is important for children to identify digraphs and trigraphs within a word so that they read them as one sound, e.g. ‘n-igh’t’ instead of ‘n-i-g-h-t’.

By this stage, children should be familiar with using sound buttons and sound bars to differentiate between individual letter sounds and digraphs/trigraphs.

Tricky Words (Common Exception Words)

Tricky words or common exception words do not fit the regular spelling rules that have been taught, therefore children can not segment and spell them like regular words. Children are taught to recognise and spell tricky words by sight (to memorise them) and to point out the tricky part of the word.

Letter Formation

In Level 3, children will learn to form the remaining individual graphemes, as well as new digraphs and trigraphs. Although children will have already learned how to form these letters individually, it is beneficial to practise writing the letters together - this will help children become familiar with identifying them within words when reading and spelling.

level four

Consonant Blends

In Level 4, children are taught to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants. Adjacent consonants are two consonants that are next to each other, such as ‘st’ or ‘ft’.

This is divided into four weeks

CVCC words
CCVC words
Adjacent consonants
Polysyllabic words

Children are initially taught adjacent consonants that appear at the end of words - these are called CVCC words, such as ‘hand’ or ‘back’.

Next, they will be taught adjacent consonants at the beginning of words, called CCVC words, which include ‘stop’ and ‘chip’. Sometimes, adjacent consonants can also appear in the middle of words - this is usually when the word ends with a suffix, such as ‘ing’ or ‘er’.

Blending and Segmenting

In Level 4, children will combine the Level 2 and Level 3 GPCs that they have learned with new adjacent consonant to read and spell new words.

Although adjacent consonants are sometimes taught as specific pairs, they are not digraphs. They are two individual sounds that are blended together. They are often at the beginning or end of words, such as ‘hand’ or ‘stop’. These are CVCC or CCVC words.

Sometimes, three consonants can appear together, such as ‘str’ in ‘strap’. This would be a CCCVC word. By this stage, there are many different combinations of words that children should be able to read using the GPCs and blends that they are familiar with.

It is also important to note that the consonant or vowel in a word could be a digraph, such as ‘trash’ or ‘broom’.

level five

Blending and Segmenting

In Level 5, children will use the previous GPCs that they have learnt in Level 2 and 3 and adjacent consonants from Level 4, along with new GPCs to read and spell new words. They will also learn to recognise suffixes and prefixes within words.

Children can continue to use sound buttons and sound bars to differentiate between individual letter sounds and digraphs/trigraphs. They can also use bars to identify prefixes or suffixes within a word.

Blending

For reading, children may have to choose between different pronunciations of sounds. For example, when they read the word ‘bread’, they will have to decide whether the ‘ea’ makes the /ee/ sound or the /e/ sound in this word. Children can use context clues and familiarity to help them choose between different pronunciations.

Segmenting

Children may have to choose between different graphemes when spelling. For example, they will have to decide which /ai/ grapheme to use to spell ‘rain’ or which /ee/ grapheme to use to spell ‘green’. Children can use familiarity with words and spelling rules and clues to help them choose the correct grapheme.

Twinkl Resources

We highly recommend Twinkl as a fantastic resource for phonics learning. Their DfE‑validated Twinkl Phonics scheme offers a comprehensive range of materials perfectly aligned with the Letters and Sounds progression.

Pair it with Rhino Readers, a broad collection of fully decodable books crafted to match the phonics levels and boost reading fluency.

Together, they make an invaluable combination for creating engaging and effective phonics lessons — helping children develop confidence, decoding skills, and a genuine love for reading.

GO TO TWINKL.CO.UK

GLA Recomended Reading Lists.docx

Our Reading Lists

This reading list covers our recommended diverse texts to support the curriculum, reading lists for GCSE Exams and the 11 Plus exams. Additionally, this collection enriches our efforts in supporting children with low self-esteem or additional mental health needs.

Chosen for their diversity and relevance, these books nurture empathy, confidence, and emotional well-being alongside academic growth.

We believe in the power of storytelling to inspire, uplift, and help every child thrive.

SEE OUR 2025 LIST

English as an Additional Language

For our early learners who are new to the UK or developing their English skills, we provide tailored support to build confidence and proficiency. Whether you want to improve everyday communication, advance at work, or prepare for an English qualification or exam, our English for Speakers of Other Languages (EAL / ESOL) programme is designed to help you achieve your goals.

MORE INFORMATION

Help with Homework

We provide online sessions that give students personalised support with homework, from clarifying concepts to step-by-step guidance. Tutors not only help complete assignments but also build confidence, foster independent learning, and deepen subject understanding.

BOOK A FREE TRIAL LESSON