Phonics at Holy Family Catholic Primary School

Reading is KING at Holy Family and so the teaching and learning of Early Reading is of upmost importance to us.

At Holy Family, we teach phonics using ‘Read, Write Inc.’ in daily 40 minute lessons. Your child will learn to read in a very simple way. They will learn to:

1. Read letters by their 'sounds' starting with those in Set 1, followed by Set 2 and Set 3

2. Blend those sounds into words

3. Read the words in a story.

SET 1

Children will begin to learn to:

• Read Set 1 Speed Sounds. These are sounds written with one letter:

m  a  s  d  t  i  n  p  g  o  c  k  u  b  f  e  l  h  r  j  v  y  w  z  x 

• Read Set 1 Special Friends. These are sounds written with two letters:

sh  th  ch  qu  ng  nk  ck

• Read words containing these sounds, by blending:

eg) m-a-t   mat

• Read blending books containing these words. Your child will be bringing home Blending Books and Red, Green and Purple storybooks.
• Children will be taught these sounds using pictures. For example:

‘s’ is in the shape of a snake

‘d’ is in the shape of a dinosaur

‘m’ is in the shape of two mountains.

You can find Set 1 Speed Sounds resources here:

SET 2

Children will begin to learn to:

• Read Set 2 Speed Sounds:

ay  ee  igh  ow  oo  ar  or  air  ir  ou  oy

• Read words containing these sounds
• Read blending books containing these words. Your child will be bringing home Pink, Orange and Yellow storybooks.

You can find Set 2 Speed Sounds resources here:

SET 3

Children will begin to learn to:

• Read Set 3 Speed Sounds:

ea  oi  a-e  i-e  o-e  u-e  aw  are  ur  er  ow  ai  oa  ew  ire  ear  ure

• Read words containing these sounds
• Read blending books containing these words. Your child will be bringing home Blue and Grey storybooks.

You can find Set 3 Speed Sounds resources here:

Support at home

Additional documents:

We have invited our parents into the heart of our phonics sessions to watch their children learning their sounds. The teaching staff were keen to share their strategies and practice so adults at home can echo them to support children's early reading.