Phonics at Nythe
We are a Sounds-Write School.
About Sounds-Write
Sounds-Write is a quality first phonics programme that provides our classroom professional with a comprehensive system with which to teach children to read, spell and write.
Sounds-Write is effective in teaching pupils to read, spell and write because it starts from what all children know from a very early age – the sounds of their own language. From there, it takes them in carefully sequenced, incremental steps and teaches them how each of the 44 or so sounds in the English language can be spelt.
The words used in the teaching process and the conceptual knowledge of how the alphabet code works are introduced from simple to complex, in accordance with the fundamental principles of psychological learning theory. For example, at the start, simple, mutually implied (one sound, one spelling) CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) only are introduced. Pupils quickly learn to read and spell words such as ‘mum’, ‘dog’, ‘jam’ and ‘sit’. When all the single-letter sound-spelling correspondences have been introduced and established, Sounds-Write initiates the concept that the sounds f, s, z and l can be spelt with the two letter-spellings ff, ss, zz and ll respectively.
As the programme progresses, the complexity of one-syllable words is carefully increased through a variety of VCC, CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC and CCCVC words, such as, for example, ‘elf’, ‘hand’, ‘swim’, ‘trust’ and ‘scrub’.
After this, pupils’ understanding of the concept ‘two letters – one sound’ is further developed through the introduction of the most common consonant two-letter spellings: sh, ch and th, in words like ‘shop’, ‘chimp’ and ‘thin’, for example.
Finally, two, three and four letter spellings of the vowels are introduced and pupils are taught how to read and spell polysyllabic words, starting with simpler words (such as ‘bedbug’) and gradually moving to the more complex (such as ‘mathematical’).
All of this is taught within a well-structured, incremental and coherent framework based on the knowledge – both conceptual and factual (see below) – on which the alphabet principle and thus the writing system is based and the three key skills needed to enable learners to use the principle effectively.
Our approach teaches the conceptual understanding needed to become an effective reader:
- that letters are spellings of sounds: visual language is a representation of spoken language
- that a spelling can contain one, two, three, or four letters – examples are: s a t, f i sh, n igh t and w eigh t
- that there is more than one way of spelling most sounds: the sound ‘ae’, spelt as in ‘name’, can be represented as in ‘table’, in ‘rain’, in ‘eight’, in ‘play’, and so on
- that many spellings can represent more than one sound: can be the sound ‘e’ in ‘head’, ‘a-e’ in ‘break’, or ‘ee’ in ‘seat’
Within this conceptual framework, we teach the factual knowledge required to become an effective reader and speller: the approximately 176 spellings that represent the 44 or so sounds in English, starting with the most simple one-to-one correspondences.
Reading and spelling also requires expertise in the skills necessary to make use of the alphabet code and pupils need to be able to:
- segment, or separate sounds in words
- blend, or push sounds together to form words
- manipulate sounds: take sounds out and put sounds into words
Sounds-Write provides opportunities for practising these skills on an everyday basis until pupils achieve the automaticity required for fluent reading and spelling.
If you would like to learn more about our approach to phonics, please register for the online course, free for everyone!
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Reading
At Nythe Primary School, we endeavour to nurture a love of reading in all our pupils. In school, adults model good reading behaviours to pupils when reading independently. Each class has a class reader, which is read together for at least 30 minutes per week. These books are ‘just for fun’ and aim to engage children in reading and expose them to a wide variety of authors and genres. Books used as the class reader are often from a series of books, and we find that this frequently encourages children to read the remaining books in the series themselves.
Children also participate in guided reading activities at school. Depending on the age of your child and their confidence as a reader, these may be small group or whole class activities. During our guided reading sessions, we focus on developing the specific skills required to be a confident reader, such as fluency, expression, inference and prediction.
Reading is an important part of the curriculum and, as such, we believe that reading with your child daily can improve their reading skills significantly. We encourage parents/carers to read with their children as often as possible, and ask that they complete their child’s online reading record. Adults in school also complete these records when they have heard a child read.
Children in Reception and Year 1 are given reading books matched to their knowledge of phonics, which they are able to take home. As children move through the school and become more confident readers, they are able to select books within their allocated book band, moving through the bands until they eventually become ‘free readers’.
What do we read and when?
Nythe Primary School Reading Spine
Parent support
Reading Events at Nythe Primary School
World Book Day 2025
The children arrived in an amazing array of costumes for our celebration of books and words. The children took to the catwalk to show off their costumes in a whole school Vocabulary Parade.
Bedtime stories brought the day to a close – but World Book Day doesn’t end there for Nythe Primary School. The children have been challenged to bring the book they buy with their £1 World Book Day token so we can read them and write reviews!
Scholastic Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair is always greeted with great excitement. Arriving just before Christmas 2024 this academic year, the children enjoyed discussing recommendations and picking out new books to read. Sales from the Book Fair raised £170 towards new books for the school.