At Longmoor Primary School, we use a Department for Education validated phonics programme called Sounds-Write to teach our children to read, spell and write.

Sounds-Write is an effective, evidenced-informed linguistic phonics programme, which teaches pupils to read, spell and write and starts from what all children know from a very early age-the sounds of their own language. It is a sound to print linguistic phonics approach and can be applied to a whole class, small group or 1:1 session.

The children are taught to become effective readers through explicit teaching and practice of the following:

Skills

• Blending (push sounds together to make words)
• Segmenting (separate sounds in words)
• Phoneme Manipulation (take sounds out and put sounds into words)

Concepts

• Letters are symbols that represent sounds
• Sounds can be spelled using 1,2,3 or 4 letters
• The same sound can be spelled in more that one way (rain, break, gate, stay)
• Many spellings can represent more that one sound (head, seat, break)

 

FS1 Learners:

Our youngest children in Foundation Stage 1 access daily pre-phonic sessions in preparation for Sounds-Write by developing the following skills:

• Speaking and listening
• Attention and concentration
• Sound discrimination and rhythm
• Phonological awareness:
• an awareness of individual sound units within words
• manipulation of sounds within words
• rhyming
• breaking words apart into syllables

FS2 Learners:

In Foundation Stage 2, the pupils have daily phonics sessions following the clear, consistent and cumulative Sounds-Write programme, beginning with the ‘Initial Code’.

Beginning at the very start of FS2, pupils begin to learn the Initial Code, using the key skills to read and spell CV, CVC, VCC, CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CVCCC and CCCVC words. Sounds-Write lesson structures provide pupils with a clear structure, focusing on building words whilst teaching the key skills. Starting with one-syllable CVC words, the complexity of the word structure builds up so that pupils apply their code knowledge to monosyllabic words with up to 6 sounds. In addition to this, pupils are taught high frequency words (everyday words) which may use sounds or spellings which they have not yet seen.

Key Stage 1 Learners:

In Key Stage 1, the pupils continue to have daily phonics lessons progressing onto the ‘Extended Code.’ This introduces 2, 3 and 4 letter spellings of sounds to read and write more complex words. This also promotes new opportunities to consolidate key skills and concepts, focusing on new sounds, such as vowel digraphs. Our units are taught in sections of common sounds (initial spellings), which are then consolidated and extended on (more spellings) in a systematic way. The Sounds-Write lesson structures build upon previous learning in the Initial Code (FS2), whilst extending skills and concepts. The structured and consistent approach, along with teaching with fidelity, enables pupils to learn in a way which reduces cognitive load, thus being highly effective.