Why Reading Sounds Right

by Rob Livingstone

from the Whitstable Gazette - 16 March 2006, p.6

CHILDREN at Swalecliffe Community Primary School have been taking part in a pioneering early learning scheme.

The newly-developed Sounds-Write system teaches children that letters in words are symbols for sounds, a process known as synthetic phonics.

The school has been running the program since September and says children are already showing above average development.

Head teacher David Hares said "I've been a head for 20 years and this is the best thing I've seen."

The Sounds-Write scheme is being applied at all ages in the school, dealing with simple short words, which teach children the basics of word structures, to longer polysyllabic words.

It is popular with both parents and teachers, but most importantly with the children who are enjoying reading words and writing them down.

Utilising interactive white board technology, children learn the precise pronunciation of each letter as part of a word, before constructing the whole word.

Mr Hares indicated that the school would continue using the scheme, as it was a great success. "Results are far too good to think about changing back," he said.

This article is reproduced here by kind permission of the Whitstable Gazette.