Phonics - Parent support - How to help your child at home.

Before your son/ daughter can start to read, s/he needs to learn to:
                   1. say the sound that is represented by each letter or groups of letters
                   2. sound out the word, e.g. c-a-t, sh-o-p, s-t-r-ee-t

Schools use phonics to teach children how to do this. Hayfield's chosen phonics scheme is called Read, Write Inc. In this programme, pupils work through set 1, before moving onto set 2 and then set 3. 

What are ‘speed sounds’ Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3?

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.

Set 1: (the single sounds)

Your son/daughter will learn the sounds below by sight.

They will also learn how to blend them together to read words
e.g. c-a-t  cat.

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

Set 2: (The long vowel sounds)

Your son/daughter will progress to learning their Set 2 sounds and then Set 3 sounds.
There are 12 Set 2 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound (this is called a digraph 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. We call these sounds 'special friends'.

When your son/daughter learns their Set 2 sounds in school they will learn:
           1. the letters that represent a speed sound e.g. ay
           2. 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’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the
new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-r-ay spray.

Set 3:
Prior to learning set 3 sounds, 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.

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.

Within set 3 sounds, your child will also learn split digraph sounds, such as a-e (as in make), i-e (as in smile). When a digraph is split by a consonant it becomes a split digraph - we use this rhyme to help us remember "Wheres your friend? He's on the end!" Again, these are pronounced as just one sound.

When your son/daughter learns their Set 3 sounds in school they will learn:
            1. the letters that represent a speed sounds e.g. ea
            2. 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.

Complex speed sound chart:

What are green words?

‘Green words’ are words which your son/daughter will be able to ‘go ahead’ and read as they are made up of the speed sounds that s/he
will have learnt.

Set 2 Green words:

Set 3 Green words:

What are red words?

Some everyday words in English have tricky spellings and can’t be read by blending e.g. you can’t blend the words ‘said’ or ‘does’. These are sometimes called high frequency words, tricky words, or red words. These words just have to be learned by sight and flashcard-type games are a good way to practise these.

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