Synthetic phonics is a way of teaching reading. Your child will be taught two skills when they are learning to read using this method:
 

1. How phonemes (sounds) are represented by written letters. For example, they will be taught that the letter ‘m’ represents the sound mmm.
2. How phonemes can be blended together to make words. For example, they will be taught that the sounds of the letters ‘c-a-t’ blend together to make the word ‘cat’.
    

Your child will be taught to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sound (or sounds) they represent. For example, they will be taught that the letter ‘l’ is a stretchy sound that is long and ‘a’ is a bouncy sound that is short. Your child will then start learning to read by blending the sounds together to make words.
 

At school, you will probably hear teachers talking about blending, but you might also hear them talk about sounding out or Fred Talk.

For further information please see the Read Write Inc. guide for parents online:

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

How do we teach phonics at our school?
 

At Deykin Avenue School, we follow the Ruth Miskin Read Write Inc. program of phonics teaching. The children are sorted into small groups and have a focused lesson for 1 hour every day.  Each half term the children will be assessed to check they are working at the appropriate level and be re-grouped accordingly.

To help your child, please
 

• Help your child practise their sounds in their sound books
• Listen to your child read their school reading book when they bring it home
• Help them to Fred talk words they are unsure of
• Encourage them to blend the sounds they can hear to read words.
• Read to your child, books, magazines, newspapers, comics, leaflets etc.

Useful Links:
 

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/ 

This site has lots of activities and information that link with the Read Write Inc scheme we do at school. It is free to register and use. There is a great online library of e-books that you can access and read with or to your child.