What is Sounds-Write Phonics?
At The Coppice Primary School and Nursery we teach phonics using a linguistic phonics
programme called Sounds-Write – a proven Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme
validated by the Department for Education. It is based on the science of reading and
provides a structured, cumulative, and code-oriented approach to teaching reading and
spelling.
The programme starts with what children learn naturally, the sounds of their own language, and
teaches them to represent those sounds in writing. Sounds-Write is a complete phonics
curriculum that teaches the skills, concepts, and code knowledge necessary for children to
read and spell.
Pupils are taught four key concepts:
Pupils are taught to master three key skills:
What do children learn in Nursery?
Children in Nursery being their journey towards reading through Sounds-Write’s Getting
Ready for Reading approach. The focus is on building the crucial foundations for reading
success- through phonological and phonemic awareness, language and physical
development and playful, multi-sensory learning through a series of activities called
‘elements’. Phonological awareness activities include non-speech sounds, words, syllables,
onset/rime, and rhyming support language development.
There are 7 elements to be taught in Nursery:
As children become ready, they develop their phonemic awareness by learning the key skills
including, sound detection, segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation. Children
begin to understand that the words that we hear and speak are made up of sounds and,
towards the end of Nursery children will start to make links between sounds and written
spellings through the introduction of the Initial-Code, to prepare children for formal phonics
teaching in Reception.
What do children learn in Reception?
Children in Reception begin with the Initial Code where they practise all three key skills
whilst learning the one-to-one sound-spelling correspondences and securing their
understanding of key concept 1. This builds up confidence and phonic knowledge enabling
them to read and spell a wide range of words and sentences.
At first, children learn to read and spell simple one-syllable words with a consonant-vowel-
consonant (CVC) sound structure (for example, ‘sat’). By the end of Reception, they can read
and write one-syllable words with up to five, or even six, sounds such as ‘twist’, ‘grand’ or
‘scraps’.
Children also develop their knowledge of key concept 2 as they learn to read and spell
words containing some sounds spelled with two letters (the sound /sh/ in ‘fish’ or the sound
/th/ in ‘thin’, for example) as well as the three-letter spelling < tch > for the sound /ch/ in
‘catch’. Key concept 3 is introduced towards the end of Reception as the students learn about a small number of sounds that can be spelled in more than one way (for example, thesound /k/ spelled as < k > in ‘kit’, < c > in ‘cat’ and < ck > ‘pick’).
What do children learn from Year 1?
Once the Initial Code has been mastered, children continue to practise all three key skills
whilst learning the Extended Code and developing key concepts 2, 3 and 4. Learning of the
Extended Code is a lifelong process – we all continue to develop our understanding how to
read and spell in English whenever we encounter new words. This is why the Sounds-Write
approach is used right up to the end of KS2 to read and spell polysyllabic words of increasing
complexity.
Children in Years 1 and 2 develop their code knowledge through explicit, systematic
teaching of the Extended Code units. Polysyllabic words are introduced in Year 1.
Children in Years 3 and 4 revisit all of the Extended Code units and learn to read and spell
increasingly complex polysyllabic words in line with our spelling approach of identifying
sounds and syllables in words.
Children in Years 5 and 6 continue to consolidate and develop their knowledge, with the
Sounds-Write approach used to teach the reading and spelling of vocabulary across the
curriculum. There is a growing focus on etymology (the origin of words) and morphology
(the structure of words) throughout spelling lessons.
When is Sounds-Write taught?
Children in Reception and Years 1 to 4 have a 30-minute Sounds-Write session every day.
Children in Years 5 and 6 have discrete Sounds-Write sessions as required for the cohort, as
well as planned and incidental teaching of reading and spelling across the curriculum using
the Sounds-Write approach.
Some children require more time and practice when learning to read and spell, and they are
supported through ‘keep-up’ and ‘catch-up’ intervention sessions in addition to the whole
class phonics sessions.
What books or reading schemes are used?
Children who are beginning to learn to read use phonically-controlled books that we call
‘decodable readers’. These books are carefully written to focus on the code the children
have been taught in phonics lessons so far.
Decodable readers allow the children to practise their developing skills and they will be sent home to give even more opportunities for practice. Parents/Carers are asked to support their children by hearing them read aloud.
At The Coppice Primary School and Nursery we use decodable readers that match the scope
and sequence of the Sounds-Write programme.
Once children have developed their skills and their code knowledge, they begin to move
away from decodable readers and read a wider range of books.
We also send books in the book bag for you to read to your child. This helps to promote a
culture of reading and develops your child’s vocabulary.
How can I help support my child at home?
If your child needs some help when they are reading you can:
*Encourage them to use their finger under the word from left to right.
*Ask them to ‘say the sounds and read the word’.
*Tell them to ‘listen’ for the words as they say the sounds.
*If they need more help, tell them the sounds in the word and ask them to listen and
blend them to say the whole word.
It is important to say the sounds very precisely. You can watch and listen to Alex saying the
sounds in this short video: click here
We encourage all of our Parents/Carers to access the free Sounds-Write online course so that they are well-informed about how best to support their children with reading and spelling at home.
If you have any questions about phonics, please contact Mrs Russell (Phonics Lead) via the school office.
