When we talk about learning to read, a lot of the focus is naturally on being able to read the words on the page.

Children learn phonics so that they can decode unfamiliar words. Then, as they become more experienced readers, those words begin to become more automatic and their reading becomes increasingly fluent.

But phonics and fluency only matter because they lead children towards meaning.

Reading comprehension is simply the ability to understand what we read — and understanding is the goal of reading itself.

When we talk about learning to read, phonics quite rightly gets a lot of attention.

It's the foundation of reading. It teaches children how letters represent sounds and how those sounds blend together to make words.

But learning phonics isn't the finish line.

Once children can decode words accurately, there's another crucial stage in their reading journey that often receives far less attention.

It's called reading fluency.

It's a phrase you'll often see on classroom walls, library displays and bookmarks. But what does it actually mean?

Reading gives children the power to learn independently. It opens doors to new ideas, new opportunities and new ways of seeing the world. A confident reader isn't limited by what someone else can explain to them—they can discover things for themselves.

If you’re a parent of a young child, you’ve probably heard the word phonics everywhere. Schools talk about it constantly, children bring home sound sheets and tricky words, and suddenly you hear your child talk about digraphs and segmenting despite the fact that you have never heard or said those words before yourself!

In simple terms, phonics is the method we use to teach children how to read and write by connecting sounds to letters.