Classroom Update

Introducing Sounds-Write

In the junior school this year we have introduced a program called Sounds-Write. Sounds-Write is a structured synthetic phonics (sounds) program from the United Kingdom based on the science of reading. 

Late last year, Corena, Fran, Michelle and I were lucky to visit St Joseph’s in Benalla to watch a session of Sounds-Write delivered by Leigh Symons. After ongoing conservation with Leigh, it was decided by our leadership team, in conjunction with our junior school, that we would also implement the program starting this year. 

Sounds-Write is designed to teach the three main skills of reading and spelling by developing four main concept ideas. The students learn the skills of segmenting, blending and phoneme (sound) manipulation by learning the following concepts:

• Letters are symbols that represent sound.
• Sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters.
• The same sound can be spelled in different ways. 
• The same spelling can represent different sounds. 

The Foundation class is currently receiving three 30 minute sessions per week (this will move to four when the students attend school five days a week). The sounds they are currently focusing on are a, i, m, s, t, n, o, p. Using these sounds they are:

• Saying and writing the sounds correctly 
• Reading and writing words that contains these sounds (mat, sat, map etc)
• Changing sounds to make new words (change at to it)

The 1/2 classes have been broken into two different groups. Both groups are currently receiving five 30 minute sessions per week. 

The sounds Group 1 are currently focusing on are a, i, m, s, t, n, o, p. Using these sounds they are:

• Saying and writing the sounds correctly - 
• Reading and writing words that contains these sounds (mat, sat, map etc)
• Changing sounds to make new words (change the word at to the word it)

Group 2 are currently:

• Using all one letter sounds (h, e, v etc) to read and write words with four sounds (hunt, jump etc).
• Exploring how two letters can make one sound (ll, ss,zz)
• Changing sounds to make new words (change the word buzz to the word fuzz)
• Reading and writing sentences that contain words with 3 and/or 4 sounds.   

If you are interested in more information regarding Sounds-Write please visit their website at https://www.sounds-write.co.uk/.