Phase 5
Phase 5 builds on Phases 2–4 by introducing: alternative graphemes (new spellings) for sounds children already know alternative pronunciations of graphemes (when a grapheme can represent different phonemes) more tricky / irregular words (common words that can’t be fully decoded).
Notes & Tips for Phase 5:
Children should already have a solid foundation in Phases 2–4 before tackling many of the alternative graphemes and pronunciations in Phase 5.
The “Grow the Code” lessons are a distinctive feature: they help children expand their phonics knowledge by gradually introducing alternative spellings and pronunciations in a controlled way.
Some tricky words introduced in Phase 5 align with National Curriculum common exception words (e.g. their, people, because).
Often, a tricky word taught earlier may cease to be “tricky” once children know the alternative grapheme/pronunciation. For example, all might later be decodable once children know that ‘a’ can sound /ɔː/ in certain contexts
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Little Wandle Phase 5 Progression |
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Phonics |
Irregular/ tricky words |
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Phase 5 - Unit 1 • Phoneme /ai/ written as ‘ay’ and ‘a_e’ • Phoneme /ee/ written as ‘ea’ and ‘e_e’ • Phoneme /igh/ written as ‘ie’ and ‘i_e’ • Phoneme /oa/ written as ‘ow’ and ‘o_e’ • Language session |
oh, their, people, your |
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Phase 5 - Unit 2 • Phoneme /oo/ written as ‘ue’, ‘u_e’, ‘ew’ • Phoneme /or/ written as ‘aw’, ‘au’ • Phoneme /air/ written as ‘are’ • Language session |
could, would, should, house |
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Phase 5 - Unit 3 • Phoneme /ur/ written as ‘ir’, ‘er’ • Phoneme /ow/ written as ‘ou’ • Phoneme /oi/ written as ‘oy’ • Phoneme /ar/ written as ‘al’ (e.g. calm) • Language session |
asked, called, looked, because |
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Phase 5 - Unit 4 • Alternative pronunciations: – ‘a’ as /ar/ (e.g. father) – ‘i’ as /ee/ (e.g. ski) – ‘o’ as /oa/ (e.g. go) – ‘u’ as /oo/ or /yoo/ (e.g. unicorn, push) • Language session |
any, many, again, who, whole |
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Phase 5 - Unit 5 • Alternative pronunciations: – ‘y’ as /ee/ (e.g. happy) – ‘ch’ as /k/ (e.g. school) or /sh/ (e.g. chef) – ‘g’ as /j/ (e.g. giant) – ‘c’ as /s/ (e.g. city) • Language session |
where, love, come, some, one, once, eye |
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Phase 5 - Unit 6 • Consolidation of all Phase 5 graphemes • Practising fluency, comprehension, and spelling • Reading alternative spellings in context • Language session |
(No new tricky words – revise all taught in Phase 5) |
