How is our program structured?
A CAREFULLY SEQUENCED PROGRAM THAT BEGINS AT THE POINT OF DIFFICULTY
4 LEVEL PROGRAM
Students enter the sequence at their identified point of need and progress as skills become secure
1. INITIAL CODE
Students build secure knowledge of the alphabetic code, learning the relationships between speech sounds and the letters that represent them.
Teaching begins with reading and spelling simple CVC words and progresses systematically through increasingly complex word structures, including CVCC, CCVC and CCVCC words. The initial digraphs ch, sh, th and wh are introduced within this progression.
Students practise identifying sounds, blending for reading and segmenting for spelling, with previously taught skills continually reviewed and applied.
The goal at this level is accurate and increasingly fluent decoding and spelling using the initial alphabetic code.
2. SPELLING RULES, SYLLABLES AND WORD STRUCTUREs
Students extend beyond the initial code to learn how English spelling patterns and rules work. Teaching includes common spelling rules, vowel patterns, syllable types and suffixing conventions, with each new concept building on previously established knowledge.
As words become longer, students learn to identify syllables and analyse word structure rather than relying solely on sound-by-sound decoding. Prefixes, suffixes and base words are introduced so students begin to recognise meaningful parts within words as well as their sound and spelling patterns.
Students apply these skills systematically in both reading and spelling, developing greater accuracy and flexibility with increasingly complex words.
The goal at this level is to move from basic phonetic decoding towards confident analysis of spelling patterns, syllables and word structure.
3. ADVANCED VOWEL SPELLINGS & MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Students extend their knowledge of vowel spellings and more complex spelling patterns while beginning to explore how words are constructed.
Teaching increasingly incorporates multisyllable words, more advanced suffixes and Latin-based word structures. Students learn to identify meaningful word parts — including prefixes, bases, roots and suffixes — and use this knowledge to support both reading and spelling.
As students progress, they also explore the history and structure of English words, helping them understand why many apparently unusual spellings make sense.
The goal at this level is to develop flexible word-analysis skills for increasingly complex reading and spelling.
4. MORPHOLOGY & ADVANCED WORD STUDY
Students move more deeply into the structure and meaning of words. Teaching focuses on prefixes, suffixes, bases and roots, helping students recognise relationships between words and understand how morphology supports spelling, vocabulary and comprehension.
Students work systematically with Latin roots and increasingly complex word families before extending into higher-level Latin roots and Greek combining forms.
This level is particularly valuable for older students as vocabulary becomes increasingly specialised across secondary-school subjects.
The goal is for students to analyse unfamiliar words independently, using their knowledge of word structure to support reading, spelling, vocabulary and meaning.