Phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another. Knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read.
Our Phonics Approach
Phonics and reading are core elements of our curriculum at St Monica Primary School. We use the St Monica Primary School approach to Letters and Sounds closely guided by our work with the English Hub (Spring Hill Primary School) and we follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ synthetic phonics progression and structure throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 (and Key Stage 2 where needed) to teach the children essential phonic skills that are required to successfully read and spell.
Please read the below documents to find more about our approach to phonics teaching at St Monica Primary School.
Reading a page in Phonics Booklet
/i/video/Readingapageinphonicsbooklet.mp4
Reading decodable book
/i/video/Readingdecodablebook.mp4
Reading Higgldy Piggldy Book
/i/video/ReadingHiggldyPiggldyBook.mp4
Handwriting
At St Monica Primary School, we very much value the importance of presentation, handwriting and children taking a pride in their work.
We very much believe that handwriting is something that should be taught and therefore we allocate time to this daily. To teach handwriting, we use Letter-Join whole school handwriting scheme.
Handwriting has been linked to the development of literacy skills, such as spelling and sight word reading.
Useful Websites
- Active Learn / Bug Club - All children are able to access this
- Alphablocks
- Letters and Sounds - Free printable resources and games for all phases
- Phonics Play - A selection of interactive games
- Topmarks - Free educational games that are tablet friendly
