How do we teach the foundational skills of reading at St Ann's? 

At St. Ann's, we use Supersonic Phonic Friends as our phonics and early reading programme. This is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which has been validated by the Department for Education. The scheme enables teachers to support children in developing their phonics knowledge, in order to become fluent readers. Children in Reception and Year 1 are taught daily phonics lessons and those children who require support with their reading, receive additional daily interventions that are delivered by a highly trained member of staff.  To find out more about our chosen phonics programme, please visit https://www.supersonicphonicfriends.co.uk where you will find more information. 

Reading at home

Books are sent home each week for children to read at home.  Where possible, we ask for books to be ready two or three times at home, before being returned to school.  The first time children read their book, they may find it quite tricky and need to sound some of the words out.  With each read, it supports them in building reading fluency,  which means they can read more easily, thus enabling them to spend more time focusing on understanding the text better. 

Snuggle up Books

Your child will also bring home, 'Snuggle up' books.  These books are sent home with the purpose of children being able to snuggle up with you and their favourite cuddly toy, to enjoy a story.  These books are not matched to their reading ability, so the idea is that you read the book to them, or let them use the pictures to help tell the story. They may choose to use the book through the week to read to their siblings, or even their special cuddly toys.  Don't worry if you hear them making up the words (you may find they are simply retelling the story from memory, or using the pictures as cues), this is all part of the process of learning to read.