At The Coppice Primary, we teach phonics using a linguistic phonics programme, Sounds-Write, to ensure that all children learn to read and write successfully. This begins in Nursery, where children start to develop early sound awareness and listening skills through engaging activities. Sounds-Write is a highly structured, evidence-based and multisensory approach that teaches children how the English writing system works, starting with the sounds in spoken language and showing how these sounds are represented in written words. Our inclusive approach ensures that every child can access high-quality phonics teaching, develop confidence, and become a fluent reader and writer.
Sounds-Write focuses on four key concepts and three key skills that enable children to become confident, fluent readers and writers.
The four key concepts children are taught are:
The three key skills children need to master are:
What is Sounds-Write?
| Inclusive by nature We champion inclusive, whole-class phonics instruction that keeps every child on the same journey. By teaching all students together, we build shared achievement and ensure no learner is isolated. | |
| Built on research. Refined by practice Sounds-Write is grounded in the science of learning and shaped by over two decades of classroom experience. Every element is intentional, aligned, and designed to deliver results. | |
| Cumulative learning that secures lasting outcomes. Each lesson builds on the last, revisiting and retrieving prior knowledge so children never lose ground. Teachers are equipped with the pedagogy and resources to guide learners step by step, achieving lasting literacy outcomes. | |
| Evidence-informed linguistic phonics. Children learn to read and spell by understanding how spoken sounds map to written spellings, supported by strong research and daily classroom practice. |
See Sounds-Write in Action
Video- https://youtu.be/JNhHTmS5Mns
Nursery:
At the Coppice, our Sounds-Write approach to teaching the Initial Code in Nursery is based on three important principles.
Reception:
Our children in Reception begin with the initial code, where they practice all three key skills whilst learning the one-to-one sound-spelling correspondences and securing their understanding that ‘letters are symbols that represent sounds’. This builds up confidence and phonic knowledge, enabling them to decode and encode a wide range of words and sentences. First, children learn to read and write simple one-syllable words with a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) structure. The complexity of word structure systematically builds up so that children apply their code knowledge to polysyllabic words with up to six sounds. Children in Reception and KS1 have a 30-minute phonics lesson every day, in addition to their reading and writing lessons.
Year One:
At The Coppice, once the initial code has been mastered, children then continue to practice all three key skills: segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation. Alongside learning the extended code, which explores key concepts:
Children continue to develop their understanding of this code whenever we encounter new words. Whilst learning the extended code, our children read and write polysyllabic words at an age-appropriate level. Children in Reception and KS1 have a 30 minute phonics lesson every day, in addition to their reading and writing lessons.
Reading books:
We have a wealth of Sounds-Write decodable texts to enable children to practise the skills and code knowledge they are learning in school. Decodable readers are books where the text has been phonetically controlled to only include words with code knowledge in a set sequence (those children have already covered in school). Additionally, these texts include ‘high frequency words’. This ensures that readers can practise using the code knowledge that they have learnt, by reading words within that code, in the context of sentences and stories. This leads to a meaningful, relevant and enjoyable reading experience for all children. We supplement our reading scheme with Dandelion Reader and Launchers, a set of books which follow the Sounds-Write teaching sequence.
How can you help your child at home?
Video- https://vimeo.com/414822812?fl=pl&fe=cm
A free course for parents and carers will help you get your child off to a good start with reading!
The course will show you how to:
