Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and write. 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 ‘th’
• Blend sounds together from left to right to make a word
• Segment sounds in words in order to attempt to write them

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 and write.