The importance of Phonics

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

“Reading is the foundation of all learning, and it’s fun!”

Two very famous quotes, one from Dr Seuss and one from our very own Mr Groves, that sum up perfectly the approach to reading taken here at St Faith’s.

From Nursery the children take part in a range of fun phonic activities which encourage the children to think about the sounds in the world around them, and begin to link letters to the sounds they make. This is developed and expanded upon as they enter Reception and continues right through their learning experience in Key Stage 1.

At St Faith’s, we use a synthetic phonics scheme called Floppy’s featuring the well-known characters Biff, Chip and Kipper. We are sure you know them well! Phonics is a daily activity in all lower school classrooms where the children deepen their phonic knowledge but also enrich their vocabulary and language comprehension.

Did you know all classes at St Faith’s have a dedicated reading time slot every day? In this time, we complete many activities including individual reading, shared reading and the building of comprehension skills. We love nothing more than to share a story with our teachers. Currently in Year 3 we are reading Tom’s Sausage Lion by Michael Morpurgo and Bill’s New Frock by Anne Fine. Year 5 children are enjoying The Elephant Thief by Jane Kerr based on a true story of an elephant’s journey from Edinburgh to Manchester in the 1800s.

Bringing books to life with costumes on World Book Day was a perfect way to show our enthusiasm and enjoyment of the books we read.