Jolly Phonics is a comprehensive programme, based on the proven, fun and multi-sensory synthetic phonics
method that gets children reading and writing from an early age. This means that we teach letter sounds as
opposed to the alphabet. These 42 letter sounds are phonic building blocks that children, with the right
tools, use to decode the English language. When reading a word, they recognise the letters and blend
together the respective sounds; when writing a word they identify the sounds and write down the
corresponding letters. These skills are called blending and segmenting. These are two of the five skills
that children need to master phonics:
- Learning the letter sounds: Children are taught 42 letter sounds, which is a mix of alphabet
sounds (1 sound – 1 letter) and digraphs (1 sound – 2 letters) such as sh, th, ai and ue. Using a
multi-sensory approach each letter sound is introduced with fun actions, stories and songs. We teach
the letter sounds in 7 groups of 6 letters at a pace of 4-5 sounds a week. Children can start reading
after the first group of letters have been taught and should have been introduced to all the 42 letter
sounds after 9 weeks at school.
- Learning letter formation: This is taught alongside the introduction of each letter sound.
Typically, children will learn how to form and write the letters letter down during the course of the
lesson.
- Blending: Once the first few letter sounds are learnt, children begin blending the sounds
together to help them read and write new words.
- Segmenting: When children start reading words, they also need to start identifying the phonic
components that make the word sound the way it does. By teaching blending and segmenting at the same time
children become familiar with assembling and breaking down the sounds within words.
- Tricky words: These are words with irregular parts, such as ‘who’ and ‘I’. Children learn these
as exceptions to the rules of phonics. Introducing the common tricky words early in the year increases
reading fluency (as they frequently occur in those first simple sentences you might expect them
to read).
| Level |
Age Group |
Duration |
Class Schedule |
| 1 to 4 |
4 to 7 |
1 year |
2 days a week (1 hour) |
Benefits of Jolly Phonics
- Systematic and progressive approach to teaching children essential literacy skill
- Teaching multi-Sensory and active with fun actions, story and songs
- Create fluent readers, confident speakers and eager writers
- Children’s average reading age is typically 12 months ahead of their actual age just
after one year of phonics course.
Jolly Grammer
Jolly grammar is next stage; after one year with jolly phonics. The material provide guidance and
resources to help teach grammar to children. It is active and multi-sensory with emphasis on
consolidating the children knowledge from jolly phonics and helping them develop an understanding of
how grammar works.
Benefits of Jolly Grammer
- Reinforce and extend children’s phonics knowledge
- Teach Spellings systematically
- Expand vocabulary and improve comprehension
- Introduce parts of speech and verb tenses
- Enable children to analyse and parse text
- Introduce syntax and sentences structure