At St Mary’s School we use the Sounds-Write programme to teach Phonics and Spelling. Please click on the below image for SOUNDS – WRITE.

In Reception class we held a well attended Family Learning Phonics session on 4th October 2022 and hold weekly Phonics Parent drop ins every Thursday at 9am.

Year 1 also holds weekly parent phonics drop ins on Tuesdays at 9am. All Year 1 parents are welcome.

The Skills below are taught explicitly:

• Blending
• Segmenting
• Phoneme Manipulation (sound swapping)

Children are taught to Decode and Encode by understanding 4 Clear Concepts:

• Letters are symbols that represent sounds that they say.
• Sounds can be spelt using 1,2,3 or 4 letters – f, oa, air, eigh.
• The same sound can be spelt in different ways – bone, coat, toe, window, shoulder.
• The same spelling can represent different sounds – bread, eat, great.

All adults in school use the same consistent, concise language about sounds and spelling when teaching.

We use Phrases such as:

• In this word…
• If this was…. this would be a…
• This can spell …. What else can it spell?
• Say the sounds and read the word.

Please click here to view our Year 1 Phonics Screening.

Sounds Write™ Parent Guide

Please view the below video to hear the Precise Pronunciation of the Sounds.