Here you will find information from the latest phonics and reading parent meeting presented by Miss Pope. There are visual slides, alongside detailed notes for each section.

As a school, we are working towards one shared aim: to build a community of readers who have a pleasure and enjoyment for reading. This doesn’t just mean liking reading, but also having the willingness to read. To be able to truly achieve this, there are skills we need to support the children in building and practising throughout their reading journey.

To be able to read, children need to be taught the alphabetic code. That is, when they see letters, the can say sounds they represent, so they can decode words accurately. The problem with the English language, is that it very complex. Our language consists of 44 sounds we make when saying words (/m/, /a/, /s/), only 26 letters in the alphabet (a, b, c…) and over 150 ways of spelling these 44 sounds!! Children in England are instantly pushed into the deep end. Take Spanish for example: the alphabetic code here has only 24 sounds, 26 letters in the alphabet and just 29 ways of spelling them – neat and simplistic! Children in Spain learn to read quickly.

Think about learning to play a musical instrument…

Most of us see playing an instrument to be a specialised skill, a talent, something that is impressive. But, so is reading! Humans are not born with the ability to just read. They have to learn the skill in incremental steps and practise regularly.

When learning an instrument, children will go through these stages:

• Learn how to hold their instrument and play 2 or 3 basic notes until they can play them quickly and without thinking
• Practise using these notes to play simple tunes… which again, they repeatedly practise until they play quickly and fluently
• Learn a few more notes and practise
• Use everything they know and can do easily to play a new melody… which again, they practise, over and over.

Reading needs that same treatment for it to be most successful.