Phonics

Teaching of phonics begins in the Nursery and continues throughout Reception and into Years 1 and 2 using the Collins ‘Song of Sounds’ programme. This teaches the letters in a specific sequence and in growing complexity, with words taught alongside the sounds. Children may progress quickly through each phase or may need extra support as they move through each of the phases.

Please take the time to have a look at their website and practice with your child.

Reading

Reading at St John’s is one of the most important things we can teach your child to do. Throughout the primary school journey, we teach pupils all the basic skills needed to enable them to read independently.

We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for enjoyment. This is why we work hard to make sure children develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read. We start by teaching phonics in Nursery using the highly successful ‘Song of Sounds’ phonics programme. Children learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well.

Once children can blend sounds together to read words, they practise reading books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start to believe they can read and this does wonders for their confidence. We ask that you help by listening to your child read every day.