Phonics is an effective way of teaching children to read.

By ensuring high quality phonics teaching, we want to improve literacy levels and give all children a solid base to build on as they progress through school.

Through phonics children 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’

• blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word Children can then use this knowledge to ‘decode’ new words that they hear or see.

This is the first important step in learning to read

To find out more about phonics teaching at Holbrook have a look here.

The phonics screening check is a check of the children's phonics knowledge and takes place in June for all year 1 children and for any year 2 children who did not pass in year 1.

To find out more about the check, have a look at the information leaflet below.