Phonics: Sounds Write

At the beginning of 2022, we invested in a new accredited phonics scheme called Sounds Write.  This scheme was chosen because it will work for every child for reading and spelling from their first day in Reception, all the way to their last day with us in Year Six.  It is a multisensory, highly structured program which enables consistency across our school.

In January and October 2024, we led a parent workshop about Sounds Write phonics and how to help at home. Please see the presentation below:

 Presentation to parents 16.10.24.pdf

In Reception, your child will be taught the Initial code. The initial code includes the sounds of the letters of the alphabet as well as ff, zz, ll, ss, sh, ch, th. 

Through our Sounds Write phonics lessons your children will learn that letters are symbols for sounds. They will begin by learning to read and spell 2 and 3 letter words, before moving on to words with up to 6 letters.  

Here is a video of how to pronounce each sound: 

 Alex saying the sounds Sounds-Write Initial Code (youtube.com)

Here is a Reception parents guide:

Sounds-Write a guide for parents Reception Sept 2023.pdf

Within Reception, children will use 5 main lessons: 

Word building: Children are given the sounds in the wrong order, they have to arrange them into the correct order for the word, saying the sounds as they do. Here is a useful video to show how to do word building with your child: Fish - word building (youtube.com)

Symbol Search: Children have a selection of sounds that they know in front of them, the adult says a sound and the child has to search to find it, moving from left to right, top to bottom. 

Sound Swap: Children have to listen carefully to the word that they have in front of them and the word that they are changing it to- deciding which sound to swap. Here is a useful video to show how you can play the 'Sound swap' game with your child: Sound Swap (intro) (youtube.com)

Word Reading: Children have to say the sounds to read the word. Here is a useful video to show word reading: Reception word reading using Sounds-Write phonics (youtube.com)

Sentence dictation: Children listen carefully to a sentence including words with sounds they have learnt. Children say the sounds to write each word and then re read their sentence back to check spelling. Here is a useful video to help with this at home: Sounds Write- How to do dictation at home (youtube.com)

In Year 1 and 2 

The children will continue to use the lessons above and we introduce some further activities, alongside introducing the 'extended code' which teaches children that sounds can be spelt in different ways, e.g ae in play, rain, steak, eight, fake and that one spelling can make different sounds such as ea in break and beak. 

Further lesson activities from Year 1 upwards include: 

Categorising words into groups with the same sound, same spelling, or same spelling, different sound. For example: ea: sea, ea: bread, ea: steak. 

Seek the sound- This is where we read a text and search for words with a given sound, when we hear and see a word with that sound we write it down and look at the spelling. For example- seeking words with /ee/ we might find the word 'street' so we would write the word street and the spelling 'ee'. 

Reading and writing polysyllabic words

From Year 1 up to Year 6, children are taught to read and spell words with more than one syllable, saying the syllable to read/write the word. For example: win/dow, At/lan/tic, mul/ti/pli/ca/tion.  

In Years 3-6 children will continue to revise everything they have learnt in Reception and KS1, and also begin to analyse words and their spellings. They will look at what the 'tricky' part in each syllable within a word is. They will think of other words with the same sound and spelling.

For example, if looking at the word 'mul/ti/ply', children may say that the tricky part in the syllable /ply/ is the 'y' making the /ie/ sound. Other words with this spelling that they may discuss could include: my, by, sky. 

What can you do to help at home?

Reading is the most important activity to do at home to support your child’s education.  Reading for 10 minutes a day can have a huge impact on their full education. We want to support you with this, so you may find the links below helpful. 

Reading a decodable story with Max (youtube.com)

Our Dandelion Reader books, which we currently use in Reception, Year One and Year Two, are directly linked to the units from Sounds Write. This means your child will bring home a book that links to the sounds that have been taught recently within their phonics lessons and revise sounds taught previously. 

Reading a book several times will enable your child to gain confidence and build their fluency.   If you want to look at other books for children to read at home which focus on the Sounds Write approach you can look at www.phonicbooks.co.uk which include books for our beginner readers up to Year Two, and some more complex books with decodable words for the children further up the school who may still struggle with their reading. 

Once children have reached Year Three, Barrington Stoke books are ideal to look at which will enable the children to still practise using their phonics to support their fluency in reading.

There is a Sounds Write app which the children can use at home (based on the initial code). It is great for children in Reception and Year 1, supporting with the lessons we do in school as part of our Sounds Write scheme and also for your child's letter formation. Please find more information via this link - iPad App - Sounds-Write - (Unfortunately, this is currently only available on Apple, but we will update you when it is available on Android).

Sounds Write Parent Support:

The link below is for a course written by the course director of Sounds Write – John Walker. It is a free course for parents and goes into more detail about reading at home and supporting your child with phonics learning. This course will give you an insight into phonics as a whole, as well as more information about Sounds Write and how to help with reading and spelling. 

 Free Early Childhood Education Tutorial - Help your child to read and write | Udemy

 John has also written a few books which you can buy on Amazon which has theory and practical activities to support your own learning. Help your child to read and write: Sounds-Write Activity Book, Initial Code Units 1-7: Amazon.co.uk: Beaven, Tita, Walker, John: 9781973332749: Books 

You can find out further information about the programme and access a Sounds Write Parents course (we would highly recommend this free course for all parents) on the following link:

Support for Parents and Carers - Sounds-Write

Your class teacher can give more information about the teaching of phonics, spelling and reading at Barley Hill Primary School. Alternatively, if you would like more information you can speak to Miss Munro in Year Two.