Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:

• recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes;

• identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make - such as /sh/ or /oo/; and

• blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word.

 

Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words that they hear or see. This is the first

important step in learning to read.  Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. It is particularly helpful for children aged 5 to 7. Almost all children who receive good teaching of phonics will learn the skills they need to tackle new words. They ca then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.

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At Rodmersham we use Monster Phonics to support our phonics teaching.  They use a colour coded system which is unique to Monster Phonics; each coloured grapheme is paired with a monster character that makes the same sound to give audio-visual prompts that help children ‘see’ each sound within a word and pronounce it correctly. Our monsters are really sound cues to help children remember how to read and pronounce graphemes.

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