Phonics
At Great Preston, we teach phonics using the Sounds-Write scheme.
Sounds-Write is a structured approach to teaching children to read and spell.
Routines are embedded quickly and the clear lesson structures help learners to make significant progress with reading and spelling.
Beginning in the EYFS children are taught 3 core skills:
- Blending (the ability to push sounds together)
- Segmenting (the ability to pull apart the individual sounds)
- Phoneme manipulation (the ability to swap, insert sounds into and delete sounds out of words)
The four key concepts taught are:
- Letters are symbols that represent sounds
- Sounds can be spelling using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters
- The same sound can be spelled in different ways
- The same spelling can represent different sounds
Children begin with the Initial Code where they practise all three key skills whilst learning the 1:1 sound-spelling correspondences and securing their understanding of key concepts 1 and 2 (blending and segmenting)
Children learn to read and write one syllable words with a CVC structure. Word structure gradually builds up so that children can apply their code knowledge to a range of words (CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CCCVC). The children are introduced to the concept 2 and 3 with the sound-spelling correspondences ll, ff, ss, zz, ck, sh, ch, tch, ng, qu.
Once confident with the initial code, children continue to practise all three key skills whilst moving onto the Extended Code, which further develops key concepts 2, 3 and 4. As they continue learning the Extended Code, children read and write monosyllabic and polysyllabic words at the appropriate level.
The Sounds-Write programme continues into Key Stage Two, where it may be used to deliver whole-class spelling sessions and phonics and spelling interventions as required.