Striders Phonics Readers | Matched to Little Wandle’s Rapid Catch-up Series

Striders are a brand-new collection of 32 carefully structured high-low decodable books for striving readers ages 7+. Having identified an obvious need for phonics help for children beyond age 7 via our research into the teaching of reading, we have created this series to include age-appropriate themes and content while still being phonically decodable.

“The majority of schools focus on teaching phonics in Reception to Year 2, although 42% (20% in Autumn 2021) say they do not have a range of age-appropriate phonic readers for children in Reception to Year 2. What may be considered more surprising, however, is that 76% use phonics in Year 3, 49% in Year 4, 41% in Year 5, and 36% in Year 6.”

The Key Issues and Trends in the Teaching of Reading in the UK: Second Edition, Autumn 2023 pp7

• These expertly levelled consolidation readers are perfect for sending home to support classroom teaching and are exactly matched to Little Wandle’s Rapid Catch-up series with focus sounds following the same progression, and each set of books revising the sounds found in previous sets.

• The series of phonically decodable readers includes diverse and inclusive artwork and photography and includes features such as chapters and recurring characters (fiction) and contents and headings (non-fiction) to be more consistent with what their friends and peers are reading.

• Each book also contains ‘how to use the book’ notes to help an adult support the child’s reading along with a character page for fiction titles to orient the reader or a contents page for non-fiction titles.

• The fiction books are split into four mini-series with reoccurring characters while the non-fiction are stand-alone titles with a summary page at the end to encourage discussion.

• 32 Readers for Phases 2–5 (Set 2–13) with 13 Fiction titles and 19 Non-Fiction titles. Available separately and in packs.

Fiction Mini-series

Cal & Kim

The series follows Cal and Kim, a space delivery team as they deliver parcels and post to different planets and encounter the strange, often scary, creatures who live there.

Underwater Explorers

A group of underwater explorers have adventures in their mini-sub. The series addresses a number of environmental issues related to the ocean.

The Big Six

This series follows the ‘Big Six’ a monster group who cause chaos wherever they go.

Nick & Bok

Nick finds and takes home an unusual bug, ‘Bok’. The series follows ‘Bok’ who likes to escape his box, ultimately ending in his release into the woods.

Shop Striders Phonics Readers

Exactly matched to Little Wandle’s Rapid Catch-up series

Validated by the Department for Education

After developing a highly effective Letters and Sounds approach, Little Wandle have created a new systematic synthetic phonics programme based around the Letters and Sounds improving rates of progress 2021 update that they were funded to produce by the Department for Education and the latest research into how children learn best; how to ensure learning stays in children’s long term memory and how best to enable children to apply their learning to become highly competent readers.

The Department for Education lists Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as a validated SSP programme (June 2021).

Phase Packs

Our Phase Packs are the ideal way for parents and teachers to support their children at home and school on their reading journey.

Browse all the books

Phase 2, Set 2

Phase 2, Set 3

Phase 2, Set 4

Phase 3, Set 5

Phase 3, Set 6

Phase 4, Set 7

Phase 4, Set 8

Phase 5, Set 9

Phase 5, Set 10

Phase 5, Set 11

Phase 5, Set 12

Phase 5, Set 13