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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Teachers: RWI vs Little Wandle

32 replies

SophieSkye · 07/12/2025 07:36

I’m a parent who has visited many primary schools before applying for a reception place for Sept ‘26. For teachers who have taught both schemes, are the results/enjoyment comparable? Is one scheme better adapted for more/less academic pupils than the other?

I’ve been impressed by seeing the RWI phonics scheme being taught in small groups, and like the idea of a child being able to be moved up (and down?) a group according to their progress.

I’ve also seen and been unimpressed with seeing the Little Wandle phonics system being taught. The whole-class method left 3/5 tables (those not with the teacher or TA) of pupils ‘reading independently’/unattended/staring into space. Also, as I understand it, pupils read the same book 3 times?

TIA for your thoughts.

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FakeItUntilIMakeIt · 07/12/2025 15:53

I would echo the others there are numerous factors to consider when choosing a primary school and I wouldn’t choose a school solely on a phonics scheme.

Original poster

SophieSkye · 07/12/2025 15:57

Kwamitiki · 07/12/2025 09:27

DD is in y1 with Little Wandle and has absolutely flown. She has had fantastic teachers and TAs, though, and they have really taken to encouraging a wide range of materials (in addition to phonics) for those who are ahead.

Most of the phonics schemes are very prescriptive, and it's very much down to the teaching as to whether they enjoy it. Once they get to a certain point, we read the books once or twice and then check understanding before moving on to more interesting ones. Anything to keep up an interest in reading!

In y1, they definitely are in smaller groups at DD's school, withkids at the same level (the 2 classes are mixed for this).

They only really do phonics for a short time in their primary career (as uphill as it may seem in the first weeks of reception) so I wouldn't choose by phonics scheme. The rest of it matters more- fit, culture, teaching, facilities etc

Thank you for your thoughts! It might be a small detail in the grand scheme of things but learning to read seems like the most important thing for my DC to learn (well) during the primary years, I was keen to ask around for people’s experiences of the different phonics schemes.

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Original poster

SophieSkye · 07/12/2025 15:58

FakeItUntilIMakeIt · 07/12/2025 15:53

I would echo the others there are numerous factors to consider when choosing a primary school and I wouldn’t choose a school solely on a phonics scheme.

I wouldn’t choose a school solely on its phonics scheme either.

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Original poster

SophieSkye · 07/12/2025 16:01

Crumpt · 07/12/2025 07:47

My school does LW though I'm not in infants. All our groups have an adult. I think reading a book 3 times in class is good but they also bring the same book home. I'd have hated it for my own children who aren't reading whizzes by any means but keen children interested in stories. They'd have been bored stiff reading the same book a total of 7 or so times.

Thanks for your thoughts. I am wary about my DC being put off reading by uninspired phonics-teaching; reading a book 7 times sounds like a recipe for disaster.

OP posts:

mugglewump · 07/12/2025 17:07

SophieSkye · 07/12/2025 15:19

Thanks for your thoughts. Your point re adult-led learning vs paired reading was particularly interesting. This was my worry about LW; it seemed to rely a lot on independent/paired/whole-table work while the teacher/TA worked their way around the classroom.

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This is not how the scheme is written; peer support is just an option where adult involvement is not possible. At my favourite school they teach LW and children are taught in ability groups in Y1 and additional adults including the SENDco, learning mentors, head and executive head are drafted in for a short period every day to make sure all the children in reception and year 1 get to read with an adult in a small group 3 times a week. At another school they facilitate this by giving KS1 extra lunchtime so the teachers and TAs can pull the children in to read in their groups between 1pm and 1:30.

StrawberryRed22 · 07/12/2025 19:02

They use LW at our school and it seems to be very effective. My son absolutely flew through it all and could have used a faster pace but it didn't harm him to go at a class pace. We read more challenging books at home, he read everything around him (signs, food packets, etc.) and he was never bored. I think that boredom is often a personality thing as much as anything, and not necessarily dependent on whether they find the material easy or challenging.

Kakapop · 07/12/2025 19:30

Reception DD is doing well with LW. My only complaint is that the books are on the easy side, which is a problem we can easily fix at home. I understand the reason for the easy books, but having them on their own really don't suit DD. She gets bored and then hallucinates like an AI chatbot when I know she can read a word fine.

So we supplement with books from the library. We only "properly" read the school book a couple of times because we can count telling the story from the pictures, and she can still get her sticker at the end of the week. Since RWI don't do vowel digraphs until quite a bit later than LW, their green level books are perfect to challenge her with harder words using the GPCs she already knows (like "scratch") and longer sentences. She's enjoyed them, and I still think she benefits from the books she gets home from school.

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