This is one of the launch titles for a new series designed to address topical issues and present up-to-date theory in primary teaching. The book presents the theory underpinning the "new phonics" and its recognized place in the English curriculum. It provides a model for what children do when they are learning to decode print - and shows how phonics can be used as a tool, among others, to aid the process. It places phonics within the broader context of learning to mad, explains the current jargon (such as "onset" and "rime") in an easily assimilable way and demonstrates strategies for developing phonological awareness befom learning to read and phonics teaching at the early stages of learning to read.