Phonics

At Cobbs Brow Primary School, synthetic phonics is taught daily to help our children to read and write. The synthetic part refers to synthesizing or blending sounds to make a word. School follows the Red Rose Phonics Scheme. Phonics is a method of teaching children how spoken words are composed of sounds called phonemes and how the letters in words correspond to those phonemes (sounds). The process of reading involves decoding or ‘breaking’ words into separate phonemes (sounds), so that meaning can be gained.

Children are taught that we can make a word from the sounds and then break it apart again when we want to spell it. Spelling and reading are taught together but children may be better at reading before spelling or vice versa. Written English is recognised as being a complex language. We have 26 letters but 44 phonemes (sounds) in the spoken language. There are a huge number of letter combinations needed to make these 44 phonemes (a phoneme is a technical name for the smallest unit of sound).

If you would like any further information about the teaching of ‘phonics’ please contact school.