Phonics – Read, Write, Inc

Super Sounds

Building the Foundations for Reading

At Coleridge Primary School, we believe that children’s journey towards becoming confident, fluent readers begins long before they are ready to read words independently.

In N1 and N2, we teach the foundations of phonics through Super Sounds, a carefully sequenced programme developed by The Learning Lady.

Super Sounds develops children’s phonological awareness including their ability to hear, recognise and work with sounds in spoken language.

The programme focuses on the skills traditionally associated with Phase 1 phonics, providing children with important foundations before they begin systematic synthetic phonics through Read Write Inc. in Reception.

Through explicit teaching, playful activities, songs, rhymes and stories, children learn to listen carefully, recognise patterns in sounds and understand that spoken words can be broken into smaller parts.

Our Super Sounds Programme

Super Sounds follows a progressive sequence of six steps, ensuring that children’s knowledge and skills build gradually over time.

Step 1: Environmental Sounds

Children learn to make, match and copy everyday sounds.

Through listening games and sound exploration, children develop their ability to recognise, distinguish between and imitate familiar sounds in their environment.

Step 2: Voice and Body Sounds

Children learn to make, match and copy sounds using their voices and bodies.

Through songs, actions and sound games, they develop their ability to listen carefully, imitate and remember different sounds.

Step 3: Rhythm and Syllables

Children learn to break words into syllables through rhythm.

Through clapping, songs, rhymes and movement, they begin to recognise that spoken words can be broken into smaller parts.

Step 4: Rhyming

Children develop their ability to hear, copy and make rhymes.

They begin to recognise similarities in the sounds of spoken words through rhyming stories, songs and games.

Step 5: Initial Sound Discrimination

Children learn to hear similarities and differences in the sounds at the beginning of spoken words.

They begin to recognise when words start with the same sound and distinguish between different initial sounds.

Step 6: Oral Blending

Children learn to hear and say separate sounds in spoken words.

They practise blending individual sounds together to identify a whole word. For example, when an adult says c-a-t, children blend the sounds together to say cat.

This provides an important foundation for learning to decode written words in Reception.

Learning Through Play and Purposeful Teaching

We recognise that young children learn best through carefully planned adult-led teaching, playful experiences and opportunities to practise and apply their developing skills.

Super Sounds is taught through engaging activities that encourage children to listen, join in, imitate, explore and experiment with sounds.

Adults model sounds and language, introduce new vocabulary and provide opportunities for children to practise their learning through stories, songs, games and everyday interactions.

Children also have opportunities to revisit and apply these skills throughout the Nursery environment.

Teaching is carefully matched to children’s starting points, with additional modelling, repetition and support provided where needed.

Developing Communication and Language

Alongside Super Sounds, we place a strong emphasis on developing children’s communication and language.

Through high-quality interactions, stories, songs and conversations, children develop their vocabulary, listening, attention and understanding.

These experiences provide essential foundations for later reading comprehension.

Preparing for Read Write Inc.

Super Sounds provides a carefully sequenced foundation for the systematic teaching of phonics in Reception.

By developing children’s ability to listen carefully, distinguish between sounds, recognise rhyme and blend sounds orally, we prepare them for learning the relationship between letters and sounds.

When children begin Read Write Inc. in Reception, they build on these foundations as they learn to recognise graphemes, blend sounds to read words and develop reading fluency.

Supporting Super Sounds at Home

Families can help develop these early skills through nursery rhymes, listening games, clapping syllables, rhyming stories and oral blending activities.

Visit our Supporting Phonics at Home tab for videos and practical activities linked to the Super Sounds skills.

Read Write Inc

A Systematic Approach to Teaching Reading

At Coleridge Primary School, we teach children to read through Read Write Inc. (RWI), a systematic synthetic phonics programme developed by Ruth Miskin.

Beginning in Reception, children are explicitly taught the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and the letters or groups of letters that represent them (graphemes).

They learn to blend sounds together to read words and segment spoken words into sounds to support spelling.

Our phonics curriculum is carefully sequenced so that new learning builds securely on what children already know.

Progression Through Read Write Inc.

Children progress through Read Write Inc. according to their developing phonic knowledge and reading fluency.

Set 1 Sounds

Children learn individual letter sounds and some common sounds represented by two letters. They begin blending sounds together to read simple words.

Set 2 Sounds

Children learn further sounds represented by two or three letters and apply their knowledge to increasingly complex words.

Set 3 Sounds

Children learn alternative ways of representing sounds, allowing them to decode a wider range of words accurately.

As children become increasingly secure, they progress from reading individual words to sentences, Ditty Books and Read Write Inc. Storybooks.

Previously taught sounds and words are revisited regularly to ensure that knowledge becomes secure and automatic.

The Three Sets of Sounds

Set 1 Sounds

Children begin by learning individual letter sounds and some common sounds represented by two letters.

The Set 1 sounds are taught in the following order:

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, sh, th, ch, qu, ng, nk.

Set 2 Sounds

Children learn further sounds represented by two or three letters.

Sound	Read Write Inc. phrase
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	Shut the door
air	That’s not fair
ir	Whirl and twirl
ou	Shout it out
oy	Toy for a boy

Set 3 Sounds

Children learn alternative ways of representing sounds, helping them read increasingly complex words.

Sound	Read Write Inc. phrase
a-e	Make a cake
ea	Cup of tea
i-e	Nice smile
o-e	Phone home
u-e	Huge brute
aw	Yawn at dawn
are	Share and care
ur	Nurse with a purse
ow	Brown cow
oi	Spoil the boy
ai	Snail in the rain
e	He, she, we, be, me
oa	Goat in a boat
ew	Chew the stew
er	A better letter
ire	Fire, fire!
ear	Hear with your ear
ure	Sure it’s pure

Children also learn additional graphemes as they progress through the programme.

High-Quality Daily Phonics Teaching

Children receive daily Read Write Inc. lessons delivered by trained teachers and teaching assistants.

Children are grouped according to their current phonic knowledge and reading fluency, ensuring that teaching is closely matched to their needs.

Lessons follow consistent routines and provide frequent opportunities to revisit sounds, practise blending and segmenting, read words and sentences, and develop reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension.

Adults model sounds accurately, use consistent terminology and provide immediate feedback to address misconceptions.

Partner work and frequent opportunities to respond ensure that every child is actively involved in their learning.

Assessment That Informs Teaching

Assessment is an integral part of our phonics teaching.

Children are formally assessed every six to eight weeks using Read Write Inc. assessments, alongside ongoing assessment during lessons.

These assessments identify children’s phonic knowledge, blending skills, reading accuracy and fluency.

Assessment information is used to ensure that children are taught in the most appropriate group, identify gaps in learning and plan additional teaching and practice.

We monitor children’s progress carefully to ensure that they continue to build secure knowledge and make progress through the programme.

Keeping Up from the Start

At Coleridge, we recognise that children begin learning to read with different starting points and that some require additional teaching and practice.

Our approach prioritises keeping up rather than waiting for children to fall behind.

Children who experience difficulties are identified through regular assessment and provided with additional teaching matched to the specific knowledge and skills they need to secure.

For children who require more substantial support, teaching may be broken down into smaller steps, with additional modelling, repetition and opportunities for practice.

We maintain high expectations for every child, including disadvantaged pupils, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children learning English as an additional language (EAL).

Our aim is to ensure that every child receives the teaching and support they need to become a successful reader.

Supporting Children Beyond Key Stage 1

Our ambition is for children to become accurate and fluent readers as early as possible.

However, we recognise that some children may need additional time and support to secure the foundations of reading.

Children in Year 2 and Key Stage 2 who have not yet developed secure decoding skills continue to receive targeted phonics teaching matched to their needs.

Assessment identifies gaps in knowledge, allowing adults to focus on the sounds, blending skills and fluency children need to develop.

This ensures that children continue to receive the support needed to catch up as quickly as possible while accessing the wider curriculum.

Reading Books Matched to Children’s Knowledge

Children learning to read are given decodable reading books that are closely matched to the sounds and words they have been taught.

These books enable children to apply their phonic knowledge successfully, rather than relying on pictures or guessing unfamiliar words.

Read Write Inc. Storybooks provide opportunities for children to practise decoding, develop accuracy and build fluency through repeated reading.

Children also bring home carefully matched reading books to practise with their families.

Developing Reading Fluency and Comprehension

Accurate decoding is the essential foundation of reading, but our ambition extends beyond children being able to sound out words.

Through regular practice and repeated reading, children develop increasingly automatic word recognition, fluency and expression.

As reading becomes more fluent, children can concentrate more fully on understanding and enjoying what they read.

Read Write Inc. Storybook lessons also provide opportunities to discuss texts, explore vocabulary and develop comprehension.

Developing Staff Expertise

We recognise that effective phonics teaching depends on adults having secure subject knowledge and a thorough understanding of how children learn to read.

Our phonics leadership supports the consistent implementation of Read Write Inc. through professional development, monitoring and evaluation.

We aim to ensure that all adults understand the progression of the programme, model sounds accurately, identify misconceptions and respond effectively to children’s needs.

This helps us maintain consistently high expectations and ensure that phonics teaching is effective for every child.

Phonics Screening Check

What Is the Phonics Screening Check?

The Phonics Screening Check is a statutory assessment that children complete in Year 1 during the summer term.

It assesses how securely children can use their phonic knowledge to decode and read words.

At Coleridge Primary School, the Phonics Screening Check is one part of our ongoing assessment of children’s reading development. We use it alongside our regular Read Write Inc. assessments to identify children’s strengths and any areas where further teaching and practice may be needed.

Our ambition is not simply for children to meet the expected standard in the check, but for every child to become an accurate, fluent and confident reader.

What Does the Check Involve?

The check consists of 40 words, which children read aloud individually to a familiar adult.

There are two types of words:

• Real words: Words that children can read by applying their phonic knowledge.
• Pseudo-words (alien words): Made-up words that children must decode using the sounds and letters they have learned.

Alien words are accompanied by pictures of imaginary creatures so that children know they are not real words.

Children are already familiar with reading alien words through their daily Read Write Inc. lessons.

How Is the Check Carried Out?

Children complete the check individually with a familiar adult in a quiet, supportive environment.

There is no fixed time limit, so children can work at a comfortable pace.

We aim to make the experience as relaxed and positive as possible, ensuring children feel confident and supported.

When Does the Check Take Place?

The Phonics Screening Check takes place nationally during a designated week in June each year.

In 2027, the check is scheduled for the week beginning Monday 14 June.

How Do We Prepare Children?

At Coleridge, preparation for the Phonics Screening Check is embedded within our daily Read Write Inc. teaching.

Children are systematically taught the sounds and graphemes needed to decode words accurately. They regularly revisit previously taught sounds, practise blending and apply their knowledge when reading unfamiliar words.

We assess children’s progress regularly to identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and provide additional teaching and practice where needed.

Our focus is on ensuring that children develop secure, transferable reading skills, rather than simply teaching them to pass a test.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Expected Standard?

The check contains 40 words. The Department for Education sets a threshold each year to determine whether children have met the expected standard.

In 2026, the threshold was 31 out of 40. The threshold for 2027 will be confirmed after the check has taken place.

Will I Be Told My Child’s Results?

Yes. We will share your child’s results with you before the end of the summer term, including whether they have met the expected standard.

What Happens If My Child Does Not Meet the Expected Standard?

Children who do not meet the expected standard continue to receive carefully matched phonics teaching and additional support.

We use assessment information to identify the specific sounds and decoding skills they need to secure, providing further opportunities for teaching and practice.

Children who do not meet the expected standard in Year 1 will normally complete the check again in Year 2.

How Can I Support My Child at Home?

The most valuable way to support your child is through regular, positive reading practice.

Encourage your child to read their carefully matched Read Write Inc. book, practise the sounds they have learned and use Fred Talk to decode unfamiliar words.

Continue reading stories aloud to your child to develop their vocabulary, comprehension and enjoyment of books.

Visit our Supporting Phonics at Home tab for practical guidance, videos and activities.

Supporting Phonics at Home

Helping Your Child Become a Confident Reader

At Coleridge Primary School, we believe that learning to read is a partnership between school and home.

There are lots of simple ways you can support your child’s reading development, from sharing stories and singing rhymes to practising the sounds and words they have learned at school.

You do not need to be a teacher or buy expensive resources to make a difference.

A few minutes of enjoyable, successful practice each day can make a significant difference.

Reading Together: Developing a Love of Books

We want every child at Coleridge to develop a love of books and reading.

Across N1, N2, Reception, Y1 and Y2, children bring home our Dream Read storybooks. These high-quality stories have been carefully chosen for each year group for an adult to read aloud and enjoy with their child at home.

Children bring home one Dream Read each week. At the end of the week, simply return the book to school so your child can swap it for a new story.

Dream Reads give children access to wonderful stories beyond those they can read independently. Families can enjoy the stories together, talk about the pictures and characters, explore new vocabulary and revisit favourite books.

Regularly hearing stories read aloud helps children develop their language, vocabulary, comprehension and knowledge of the world, while showing them that reading is something to enjoy.

When sharing a story, you could:

• Talk about the characters and what is happening.
• Explain new or unfamiliar words.
• Encourage your child to join in with repeated phrases.
• Talk about what might happen next.
• Read favourite stories again and again.

Remember, children benefit from hearing stories even when they are not yet able to read the words themselves.

Supporting Super Sounds in Nursery

In N1 and N2, children develop the foundations of phonics through our Super Sounds programme.

You can support these skills at home through songs, rhymes, listening games and playful sound activities.

You can also practise these skills through everyday activities, such as singing nursery rhymes, clapping syllables, listening for environmental sounds and playing simple sound games.

Supporting Read Write Inc. at Home

In Reception and beyond, children learn to read through Read Write Inc. Phonics.

When children are ready, they bring home Read Write Inc. phonics books to read to an adult.

These books are carefully matched to the sounds and words children have been taught at school, giving them opportunities to practise reading successfully and develop fluency.

How to Say the Sounds Correctly

When helping your child with phonics, it is important to pronounce sounds correctly.

In Read Write Inc., children learn to say pure sounds, avoiding adding an extra ‘uh’ sound.

Watch this video to hear how to pronounce the Read Write Inc. sounds:

How to Help Your Child Learn the Read Write Inc. Phonics Sounds

Understanding Read Write Inc. Terminology

Your child may come home using some unfamiliar words and phrases! Here is a guide to the language we use during Read Write Inc. lessons.

Speed Sounds

The sounds children learn to recognise and say quickly when they see the corresponding letters or groups of letters.

Fred Talk

Fred is a frog who can only speak in sounds! Children learn to blend sounds together to read words. For example, Fred says c-a-t and children blend the sounds together to read cat.

Fred Fingers

Children use their fingers to identify the individual sounds in a word before writing it. For example, the word ship contains three sounds: sh-i-p.

Special Friends

Two or three letters that work together to represent one sound. For example, sh in ship, ay in play and igh in night.

Green Words

Words that children can decode using the sounds they have been taught.

Red Words

Words containing spelling patterns children have not yet been taught or parts that cannot be decoded using their current phonic knowledge.

Alien Words

Made-up words that children practise reading to develop their ability to apply their phonic knowledge to unfamiliar words.

Ditty Books

Short texts that help children progress from reading individual words to reading sentences.

Read Write Inc. Storybooks

Carefully matched books that children read during phonics lessons to practise decoding, develop fluency and build comprehension.

Book Bag Books

Books that children take home to practise reading the sounds and words they have learned at school.

How to Support Your Child with Their Reading Book

Encourage your child to read the words themselves using the sounds they have learned.

If they come across an unfamiliar word, encourage them to look carefully at the letters, identify any special friends and use Fred Talk to blend the sounds together.

Watch this video for practical guidance:

Parents: How to Listen to Your Child Read a Read Write Inc. Storybook

Reading the same book more than once is important. Repeated reading helps children become more accurate, fluent and confident.

Read Write Inc. Virtual Classroom

Children will also be sent home with a QR code giving access to Read Write Inc. Virtual Classroom videos.

These videos are selected specifically to target your child’s next steps in phonics.

Please watch the videos together and encourage your child to join in, say the sounds and practise the words.

This provides an additional opportunity to consolidate what children have learned at school.

Simple Ways to Practise Phonics at Home

Phonics practice does not need to be complicated or take a long time.

Fred Talk

Say a familiar word in sounds, such as c-a-t or sh-o-p, and ask your child to blend the sounds together.

Sound Hunt

Choose a sound your child has learned and look for objects or written words containing that sound.

Word Building

Use magnetic letters, letter cards or letters written on paper to build simple words using sounds your child already knows.

Fred Fingers

Say a simple word and encourage your child to count the sounds on their fingers before writing it.

Practise Speed Sounds

Use the sound cards or resources provided by school to help your child recognise and recall sounds quickly.

Always choose sounds and words that your child has already been taught so that practice is achievable and successful.

Two Important Ways of Reading at Home

At Coleridge, our two approaches to reading at home have different but complementary purposes.

Dream Reads are read by an adult to the child. They develop enjoyment, vocabulary, comprehension, knowledge of the world and a love of books.

Read Write Inc. books are read by the child to an adult. They provide opportunities to practise and apply the phonics children have been taught, developing decoding accuracy, fluency and confidence.

Together, these experiences help children develop both the desire to read and the skills to become successful readers.

What If My Child Finds Reading Difficult?

Learning to read takes time, and some children need additional teaching and practice to secure their phonic knowledge.

If your child finds reading difficult, try to keep practice short, positive and manageable. Encourage them to use the sounds they know, give them time to work out words and celebrate their successes.

At Coleridge, we regularly assess children’s phonic knowledge and provide additional teaching and practice when needed.

If you have concerns about your child’s reading development or would like advice about supporting them at home, please speak to their class teacher.