Phonics

From Reception your child will begin to learn how to read and write, this is taught through daily phonics sessions.  We use Read Write Inc. to teach phonics which has proven successful since its introduction.

There are guides and resources for parents on the following page:

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

Children will learn to read and write the sounds from RWI set 1 - each sound comes with a rhyme to help the children to form each letter sound correctly.  Please could you ensure that you reinforce these formations with your child to avoid any confusion.

When children know some of these sounds they will begin to learn how to blend the sounds into words e.g. b-e-d "bed" and how to segment words into their sounds "bed" b-e-d.  Each week children will be given a different set of green words to practice at home as well as in school which can all be blended and segmented in this way.  Children will also be exposed to some trickier red words, these cannot be broken up in this method and require some additional learning.  

Support for parents:

Before your son/ daughter can start to read independently, he or she needs to learn to:

• say the sound that is represented by each letter or groups of letters. These are Speed Sounds
• sound out the word, e.g. c-a-t, sh-o-p, s-t-r-ee-t. This is sound blending

What are Speed Sounds?

In Read Write Inc Phonics the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’ – because we want your son/daughter to read them effortlessly.

What are Speed Sounds Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3?

Set 1:

From reception your son/daughter will learn the sounds below by sight.

m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j, v, y, w, z, x, th, ch, qu, ng, & nk.

They also learn how to blend them together to read words

e.g. c-a-t = cat.

Set 2(The long vowel sounds):

Your son/daughter will then progress to learning their Set 2 sounds. There are 12 Set 2 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound, e.g. ay as in play, ee as in tree and igh as in high. It is important that your son/daughter does not pronounce these as 2 or 3 separate sounds. When your son/daughter sees the ‘speed sound’ letters together in a word, s/he must say just one sound for these letters. These are called ‘special friends’.

When your son/daughter learns their Set 2 sounds in school they will learn:

• the letters that represent a speed sound e.g. ay

• a simple picture prompt linked to the ‘speed sound’ and a short phrase to say

e.g. may I play.

Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your son/daughter can ‘sound out’ (this is FRED-talk) and ‘sound blend’’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-r-ay = spray.

Below are the Set 2 sounds and the phrase they learn to associate it with:

ay: may I play

ee: what can you see

igh: fly high

ow: blow the snow

oo: poo at the zoo

oo: look at a book

ar: start the car

or: storms in the north / oor: shut the door

air: that’s not fair

ir: whirl and twirl

ou: shout it out

oy: toy for a boy or toy to enjoy

Set 3

To date, your son/daughter will have learnt one way in which each long vowel sound is written (Set 2 sounds).

When learning their Set 3 speed sounds they will be taught that there are more ways in which the same sounds are written, e.g. ee as in tree and ea as in tea.

Set 3 speed sounds reading will be taught first, followed by Set 3 ‘speed sounds’ spelling. It takes some time for this information to be fully understood by your son/daughter.

There are 20 Set 3 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound, e.g. ea as in tea, ow as in cow and are as in care. As before, it is important that your son/daughter does not pronounce these as 2 or 3 separate sounds. When your son/daughter sees the ‘speed sound’ letters together in a word, s/he must say just one sound for these letters.

When your son/daughter learns their Set 3 sounds in school they will learn:

• the letters that represent a speed sounds e.g. ea
• a simple picture prompt linked to the ‘speed sound’ and a short phrase to say e.g. cup of tea

Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your son/daughter can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-oil = spoil.

Below are the Set 3 sounds and the phrase they learn to associate it with:

ea: cup of tea

oi: spoil the boy

a-e: make a cake

i-e: nice smile

o-e: phone home

u-e: huge brute

aw: yawn at dawn

are: share and care

ur: purse for a nurse

er: a better letter

ow: brown cow

ai: snail in the rain

oa: goat in a boat

ew: chew the stew

ire: fire fire!

ear: hear with your ear

ure: sure it’s pure?

tion: (celebration)

tious / cious: (scrumptious / delicious) e: he me we she be

It is important that the speed sounds are practised in the correct order as they will be taught the sounds in order of the frequency with which they will come across them when reading. The table above shows you, at a glance, the order of the sounds.

What are green words?