Phonics
Phonics provides vital foundations to become a fluent reader.
At Gretton, to support our readers and the acquisition of accurate spelling, we use a phonics programme called Sounds Write.
Sounds write is a linguistics phonics programme, simple in delivery, focussing on the initial code and then the extended code before moving into polysyllabic words. It focuses on developing the phonetic awareness skills of segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation.
Why is this better ?
Cognitive load theory suggests we have an upper limit to how much information we can securely store and retrieve, therefore we need to provide the tools for efficient reading, writing and spelling so we can decode new language as our exposure increases.
Phonics is a series of skills that give us the ability to know and understand the alphabetic code. The core skills for reading are segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation. When writing and spelling you need to use this code in reverse - the most effective way to spell and read well is to practice these skills throughout primary and secondary school.
When children learn to read using phonics, they're learning how letters and letter combinations represent speech sounds. This same knowledge is crucial for spelling - it's just working in the opposite direction. Instead of seeing letters and producing sounds (reading), children hear sounds and produce letters (spelling).
Sounds Write Lessons
Sounds Write uses scripted lessons and error corrections to ensure that delivery to all learners is consistent across the school. This ensures that we are not overloading the learners as they become familiar with the structure of the lesson.
In sounds write we do not assess spelling ages, we use progress checks. We try to avoid using terms like age related - as Sounds Write is not a quick fix - it’s teaching lifelong skills to empower children to read, write and spell with ease forever - rather than memorising word lists.
Things that will not come into Sounds Write: Spelling rules, there are too many exceptions and can confuse the learners.