Phonics information for parents
At John Cross Primary School we have a focused and systematic approach to the teaching of phonics.
On this page we aim to share with parents some useful tips and resources that will help you while reading with your child at home. Please take some time to watch the short video clips and use the linked resources and pages to support your child at home. If you have any questions or do not fully understand any of the advice on this page please speak to Mrs Brown.
At John Cross, we use the comprehensive synthetic phonics programme, Floppy's Phonics Sounds and Letters, developed by phonics expert Debbie Hepplewhite to systematically teach and practise Letters and Sounds. The Sounds and Letters resources are fully matched to the DfES Letters and Sounds phonics programme and are further supported in school by our own Fuzzy Wugg phonics lessons and ORT resources. Floppy's Phonics stories used in reception and year 1 enable your child to improve their word recognition skills and language comprehension. All our reading books in the early years and KS1 have been structured in stages which correspond to the stages of phonics that we teach. Children will only take home books which include the letter sounds that they are confident with and words that have been pre-taught (e.g. character names) or tricky words they can read. This enables your child to build confidence by providing opportunities to practise the decoding skills they are being taught in school.
Pronunciation - The correct pronunciation of pure letter sounds is vital to your child's reading and spelling progress. If you are not confident with the pronunciation of pure letter sounds please visit the Oxford Owl parents page and take time to watch the information videos to help you.