Parent/Teacher

Guide

Ah
elpf
ul g
uide
for p
aren ts and t
eachers

Learn to read and write with Jolly Phonics!

1
There are essentially two stages to literacy learning:

Phonics - giving the basic ability to read and write

Grammar - giving the broader skills to be able to communicate
well

Jolly Phonics teaches both stages thoroughly and enjoyably

through the primary/elementary years at school. In the first
stage the letter sounds are taught in a fun, multisensory way.
Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write
words.

In the second, grammar stage, the structure of the language is

taught. This includes parts of speech, spelling, punctuation and
more. Children learn how to express themselves accurately and
well.

This guide provides advice for parents and teachers. It explains

the principles behind Jolly Phonics, which enable the excellent
results.

Towards the end of this guide is an overview of the Jolly Phonics

materials. Resources suitable for supporting children at home
are also highlighted.

Phonics Stage
Jolly Phonics uses the synthetic phonics method, which means
that the letter sounds are taught first, on their own, and children
are then taught to blend sounds together to say (‘synthesise’)
the word.

The five basic skills for reading

and writing are:
1. Learning the letter sounds
2. Learning letter formation
3. Blending
4. Identifying sounds in words
5. Spelling the tricky words
2
1. Learning the letter sounds
In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not
just the alphabet. The sounds are in seven groups. Some sounds
are written with two letters, such as ee and or. These are called
digraphs. Both oo and th can make two different sounds, as in
book and moon, that and three. To distinguish between these
two sounds, the digraph is represented in two forms. This is
shown below.

Group 1: s, a, t, i, p, n
Group 2: c k, e, h, r, m, d
Group 3: g, o, u, l, f, b
Group 4: ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
Group 5: z, w, ng, v, oo, oo
Group 6: y, x, ch, sh, th, th
Group 7: qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar

Each sound is taught with an action, which helps children

remember the letter(s) that represent it. For the sound ‘s’ for
instance, they hear a story about going for a walk and suddenly
seeing a snake. They weave their hands, pretending to be that
snake, saying sss. In this way, one letter sound can be taught
each day. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are
no longer necessary. There is a list of all of the letter sounds and
their corresponding actions on page 8 of this guide.

Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. For
example, the letter a should be called a (as in ant) not ai (as in
aim). Similarly, the letter n should be n (as in net), not en. This
will help in blending. The names of each letter will be taught
later. The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order.
The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they
make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.
The letters b and d are introduced in different groups to avoid
confusion.

Sounds that have more than one way of being written are initially
taught in one form only. For example, the sound ai (rain) is taught
first, and then alternatives a-e (gate) and ay (day) follow later.
Examples can be found in the Jolly Phonics Word Book.
3
2. Learning letter formation
It is very important that a child holds their pencil in the correct
way.
The grip is the same for
both left- and right-handed
children.

The pencil should be held in the ‘tripod’ grip between the thumb
and first two fingers. If a child’s hold starts incorrectly, it is very
difficult to correct later on.

A child needs to form each letter the correct way. The letter c
is introduced in the early stages as this forms the basic shape
of some other letters, such as d . Particular problems to look
for are:
the o (the pencil stroke must be anticlockwise, not clockwise),
d (the pencil starts in the middle, not the top),
there must be an initial downstroke on letters such as m and n.

The Jolly Phonics DVD, My First Letter Sounds, Jolly Stories and Finger
Phonics books show the correct formation of each letter. A good
guide is to remember that no letter starts on the baseline.

Jolly Phonics offers the option of two typefaces, precursive,

preferred in the UK, and print, preferred in North America. While
print looks more like everyday printed letters, precursive eases
the transfer to joined-up (cursive) writing with the ‘exit’ strokes
on some of the letters. Joined-up writing improves the fluency of
writing, and also the spelling, as words are remembered more
easily when written in one continuous movement.

4
3. Blending
Blending is the process of
saying the individual sounds
in a word and then running
them together to make the
word. For example, sounding
out d-o-g and making dog.
It is a technique every child will need to learn, and it improves
with practice. To start with, you should sound out the word
and see if a child can hear it, giving the answer if necessary.
Some children take longer than others to hear this. The sounds
must be said quickly to hear the word. Try little and often with
words like b-u-s, t-o-p, c-a-t and h-e-n. It is easier if the first
sound is said slightly louder. There are lists of suitable words
in The Phonics Handbook and the Jolly Phonics Word Book.

Remember that some sounds (digraphs) are represented by

two letters, such as sh. Children should sound out the digraph
(sh), not the individual letters (s-h). With practice they will be
able to blend the digraph as one sound in a word. So, a word
like rain should be sounded out r-ai-n, and feet as f-ee-t. This
is difficult to begin with and takes practice. The Jolly Phonics
Regular Word Blending Cards can be used in class to improve
this skill.

You will find it helpful to be able to distinguish between a

blend (such as st) and a digraph (such as sh). In a blend the
two sounds, s and t can each be heard. In a digraph this is not
so. Compare mishap (where both the s and h are sounded)
and midship (which has the quite separate sh sound). When
sounding out a blend, encourage children to say the two
sounds as one unit, so fl-a-g not f-l-a-g. This will lead to
greater fluency when reading.

Some words in English have an irregular spelling and cannot

be read by blending, such as said, was and one. Many of
these are common words. The irregular parts have to be
remembered. These are called the ‘tricky words’.
5
4. Identifying sounds in words
The easiest way to know how to spell a word is to listen for the
sounds in that word. This is also called segmenting and is the
reverse of blending.

Start by having your child listen for the first sound in a word.
Games like I-Spy are ideal for this. Next try listening for the end
sounds, as the middle sound of a word is the hardest to hear.

Begin with simple three-letter words such as cat or hot. A good

idea is to say a word and tap out the sounds. Three taps means
three sounds. Say each sound as you tap. Take care with digraphs.
The word fish, for example, has four letters but only three sounds,
f-i-sh.

Rhyming games, poems and the Jolly Songs also help tune the
ears to the sounds in words. Other games to play are:
a) Add a sound: what do I get if I add a p to the beginning of
ink? Answer: pink. Other examples are m-ice, b-us, etc.
b) Take away a sound: what do I get if I take away p from pink?
Answer: ink. Other examples as above, and f-lap, s-lip, c-rib, d-rag,
p-ant, m-end, s-top, b-end, s-t-rip, etc.

5. Spelling the tricky words

There are different ways to learn words with irregular or tricky
spellings:

1) Look, Cover, Write and Check. Look at the word to see which
bit is tricky. Ask the child to try writing the word in the air saying
the letters. Cover the word over and see if the child can write it
correctly. Check to make sure.
2) Say it as it sounds. Say the word so each sound is heard. For
example, the word was is said as ‘wass’, to rhyme with mass, the
word Monday is said as ‘M-on-day’.
3) Mnemonics. The initial letter of each word in a saying gives the
correct spelling of a word. For example, laugh - Laugh At Ugly
Goat’s Hair.
4) Using joined-up (cursive) writing also improves spelling.
6
Decodable Storybooks
Once a child has begun to learn the
letter sounds they will be able to
pick them out in words. They should
then move on to working out whole
words through blending. It is easier if reading begins with
storybooks that use simple regular words. Such words are
easily read from the ‘code’ of writing and so are described
as ‘decodable storybooks’. The Jolly Phonics Readers are an
example of such storybooks.

Once there is fluency in reading, the most important skills for a

child will be comprehension and the understanding of more
words. This can be developed by asking a child questions about
a story they have just read.

Children’s achievement in the Phonics stage

Independent studies find that, after one year’s teaching, children
taught with Jolly Phonics have an average reading age around
12 months ahead of their actual age. For spelling the gain is
usually slightly more. In addition, it is typical for all children to do
well, whatever their social background, and whether English is
their first language or not, with boys doing as well as girls.

About Jolly Phonics

Jolly Phonics has been developed by Sue Lloyd and
Sara Wernham, who were primary/elementary school
teachers at Woods Loke Primary School in Lowestoft,
England. Jolly Learning Ltd is an independent British
publisher, founded in 1987.

7
 The Actions
s Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss.

1
a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a.
t Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t.
i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i.
p Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p.
n Make a noise, as if you are a plane - hold arms out and say nnnnnn.

c k Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck.

2
e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh.
h Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h.
r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr.
m Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm.
d Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d.

g Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g.

3
o Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o.
u Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u.
l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say llllll.
f Let hands gently come together as if deflating a toy fish, and say ffffff.
b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b.

4
ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai.
j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j.
oa Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh!
ie Stand to attention and salute, saying ie, ie.
ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say ee-or, ee-or.

z Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz.

5
w Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh.
ng Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ng...
v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv.
oo oo Move head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little
and long oo.).

y Pretend to be eating a yoghurt and say y, y, y.

6
x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with a camera and say ks, ks, ks.
ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch.
sh Place index finger over lips and say sh, sh, sh.
th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th
sound (this and thumb).

qu Make a duck’s beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu.

7
ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou.
oi Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy!
ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you.
er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say er, er, er.
ar Open mouth wide and say ah. (British English)
Flap hands as if a seal and say ar, ar, ar. (Nth Am English).
8
Grammar Stage
The Phonics stage of Jolly Phonics covers the first year of teaching
at school. Jolly Phonics continues with grammar (including
punctuation) and spelling lessons for the next 6 years at school,
with each year termed Grammar 1 through to Grammar 6.

The teaching is active and multisensory, with colours (matching

those used by Montessori schools) and actions for parts of speech
and continues to revise and extend children’s phonic knowledge.
There are two lessons a week covering grammar, punctuation
and spelling topics.

The Grammar stage is divided into two halves: Grammar (and

Punctuation) and Spelling.

1. Grammar
The term ‘grammar’ is used broadly, and includes parts of speech
and anything to do with the structure of the language such as
punctuation and issues with word meaning such as comparatives
and superlatives, and homophones (which sound alike, but have
different spellings and meanings).

Capitals: Children are introduced to reading and writing capital

letters during the initial Phonics stage of teaching, once they
have learnt the main letter sounds. Capitals are revised regularly
throughout Grammar 1, alongside alphabetical order.

Alphabet, Dictionary and Thesaurus Skills: Learning the

letter names, and their position in the alphabet, allows children
to find words easily in a dictionary. In Grammar 1 and 2, these
dictionary skills are practised regularly so that children can put
words into alphabetical order and use a dictionary to check
the spelling and meaning of words. It also helps them to use
a thesaurus to find ‘synonyms’ (words with a similar meaning,
like ‘shout’ and ‘yell’) and ‘antonyms’ (opposites like ‘huge’ and
‘tiny’), and so expand their vocabulary.
9
Nouns: From the start in Grammar 1, children are taught the
difference between common nouns (such as ‘cat’) and proper
nouns (such as names like ‘John’). This distinction is important as
proper nouns need to start with a capital letter.

Later, they are introduced to collective, possessive, concrete and

abstract nouns (Grammar 3 and 4), while in Grammar 6 they
learn that nouns can be countable or uncountable and that
some, called gerunds, are formed from verbs (like the activities
‘gardening’ and ‘skiing’).

Verbs: From the beginning, children are taught that verbs

can take place in the present, past and future. In Grammar 1
and 2 they regularly practise verbs in the simple tenses (I play,
I played, I will play); in Grammar 3 they are introduced to the
continuous tenses (I am playing, I was playing, I will be playing);
and in Grammar 5 they learn the perfect tenses (I have played, I
had played, I will have played). At this point they also learn that
when a sentence has an object the verb is ‘transitive’ but when
there is no object it is ‘intransitive’. In Grammar 6 they look at
how verb forms change, depending on whether the sentence is
written in the active or passive voice, or when it is a modal verb
or imperative.

The verb ‘to be’ is important because it is so common and is

used in the continuous tenses. However, it has an irregular
conjugation. It is taught in Grammar 2, ready for teaching the
continuous tense in Grammar 3 (eg: I am walking).

Other Parts of Speech: Pronouns, adjectives and adverbs

are first introduced in Grammar 1, followed by conjunctions and
prepositions in Grammar 2, and this teaching is revised and
extended throughout the later levels. There is a strong focus on
comparatives and superlatives, such as ‘bigger’ and ‘biggest’, in
the middle years.

Plurals: The most common way to make a word plural is to

10
add ‘s’ or ‘es’ (cats, dishes). This is taught in Grammar 1 and
is extended in subsequent levels to include tricky plurals like
‘mice’ and ‘children’, as well as the plurals for words ending in ‘y’
(trays, puppies), ‘o’ (potatoes, pianos), ‘f’ and ‘fe’ (roofs, leaves,
knives) and ‘us’ (cacti or cactuses).

Sentences and Punctuation: Early in Grammar 1, children

are taught the concept of a sentence, with a capital letter at
the start and a full stop (period) at the end. Other punctuation
is introduced too: speech marks and question marks (Grammar
1); commas, exclamation marks and apostrophes (Grammar 2);
hyphens (Grammar 3); and parenthese, colons and semicolons
(Grammar 5 and 6).

From Grammar 3 on, the teaching of sentence structure is

developed further: children learn how to identify the subject
and object of a sentence, and how to use phrases and clauses
effectively in their writing. They are taught how to organise
sentences into paragraphs (Grammar 3) and are encouraged to
use cohesion, using ‘connective’ words to link their ideas in a
fluid way (Grammar 6).

Proofreading: To spell and punctuate correctly, children must

check their work for mistakes and be able to correct them. These
proofreading skills are first introduced in Grammar 2 and are
extended in Grammar 4, when the children look at grammatical
agreement and the effect that changing a word can have on the
rest of the sentence.

Homophones and Homographs: Homophones are words that

sound the same but that have different spelling and meanings,
such as ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ and ‘to’, ‘two’, and ‘too’.
Homographs are words that share the same spelling but mean
different things, such as ‘The birds fly away’ and ‘There’s a fly in
my soup’. There is a strong focus on homophones throughout the
levels, particularly in Grammar 4, while homographs are taught
in Grammar 5.
11
2. Spelling
A wide range of spelling concepts and patterns will be taught
thoroughly, enabling children to consolidate and extend their
knowledge. This provides children with a framework of rules that
they can apply in their spelling. In the weekly spelling lesson
children will be given a list of words to learn to spell as well as
plenty of dictation.

Alternative Spellings: Having first learnt one way of writing

each letter sound, the children are taught the alternative
spellings for many vowels:

ai (rain) a-e (as in gate), ay (as in day)

ee (bee) e-e (as in these), ea (as in leaf)
ie (tie) i-e (as in time), igh (as in high), y (as in fly)
oa (boat) o-e (as in bone), ow (as in slow)
ue (cue) u-e (as in cube), ew (as in few)
or (British English), o (American English) (fork)
al (as in talk), au (haul), aw (saw)
ou (loud) ow (cow)
oi (boil) oy (boy)
er (fern) ir (bird), ur (turn)

To make it clear in the text below we use < > brackets to show
spellings, and sloping lines / / to show sounds.
Note that spelling <ow> can be pronounced both as in slow, and
as in cow.
The spelling <ue>, along with the spellings <u-e> and <ew> can
be spoken in different ways. While some words always have the
long u (cue, cube, few) other words have the long u in British
English, and the long oo in American English (due, duke, new),
and yet other words consistently have the long oo (blue, flute,
crew).
The teaching of these alternative spellings starts in the Phonics
stage and continues in Grammar 1 (the first Grammar year).

Words ending in -y: Children are taught that words ending

12
with the sound /ee/ usually end with <y>, as in funny, happy. (This
spelling rule is introduced in the yellow Jolly Phonics Readers,
Level 2).

Doubling Rule: In Grammar 1, children are taught that words

with a short, stressed vowel sound have a doubled consonant
before the next syllable (fatter, bedding, hilly, hottest, button),
whereas words with any other vowel do not (sailor, leaflet, silent,
hotel, booking, sooner). This is a widely reliable spelling rule, and
children need to be able to identify the short vowels.

Silent Letters: In Grammar 2, the children are first introduced

to words that have a silent letter, such as the ‘b’ in lamb, ‘w’ in
wrist and ‘k’ in knight. While they are not spoken when read, they
have to be written when the word is spelt.
Soft c, soft g and ph: In Grammar 2, children are taught that the
letter <c> is typically spoken as an /s/ when it is followed by <e, i>
or <y> in a word (such as ice, city, cycle). Similarly the letter <g>
is typically spoken as a /j/ (as in gem, magic, gym). The spelling
<ph> for /f/ is also taught (as in photo).

Unusual Spelling Patterns: English has many unusual spelling

patterns and these are taught progressively from Grammar 2.
Examples are <wa> saying /wo/ (as in wash, swan), <ou> saying
/u/ (as in touch, young). In Grammar 3, the unusual spelling
patterns are developed further, with <a> saying /ai/ (as in baby,
crazy), <e> saying /ee/ (as in email, secret), <i> saying /ie/ (as in
icy, child), <o> saying /oa/ (as in open, hello), and so on.

This is taken further in Grammar 4, 5 and 6, with <ear> saying

/er/ (as in earth) and <gh> saying /g/ (as in ghost, dinghy) in
Grammar 4, <ch> saying /sh/ (as in chef) and <sure> saying /shor/
(as in sure) in Grammar 5 and <ough> saying /off/ (as in cough),
/uff/ (as in rough), /oa/ (as in dough), /or/ (as in bought), /oo/
(as in through) and /ou/ (as in drought) in Grammar 6.

Schwa: The schwa is the weak vowel sound of the <e> in children,
13
or the <o> of carrot. It happens to be the most common vowel
in English. It is specifically taught in Grammar 4 and is a strong
focus in later levels, particularly when it appears in common
suffixes like ‘-ity’ and ‘-ety’.

Prefixes and Suffixes: In Grammar 2, children are taught that

one or more syllables can be added to a word to change, or add
to, its meaning. Prefixes are added at the beginning (‘unhappy’,
‘midday’) and suffixes come at the end (‘powerful’, ‘powerless’).
Adding a prefix is usually straightforward, but there are several
spelling rules for adding a suffix that starts with a vowel (for
example, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -able), and these are regularly
revised throughout the levels.

Children’s achievement in the Grammar stage

The most dramatic improvements to result from the Grammar
stage will be found in the children’s writing. The children will spell
and punctuate more accurately, use a wider vocabulary and have
a clearer understanding of how language works. This enables
children to express themselves better and more accurately, in
speech as well as in writing.

14
Jolly Phonics and Grammar resources
A wide range of fantastic Jolly Phonics and Grammar resources
are available for use both at home and school. Here, we run
through a selection of resources.

For further details on all of our resources, you can download a

copy of our catalogue at www.jollylearning.co.uk. Alternatively,
you can view all resources - alongside sample pages allowing
you to view the insides of resources - via our online shop.

Many of our resources are also suitable for use at home. These
are marked with a * .

1. Early Learners and Home Learning

Whilst the Jolly Phonics programme is aimed at children aged 4-5,
we have a number of wonderful resources that can be introduced
to children at an earlier age, for parents or at nurseries.

all resources
*
These resources include the Bumper Book of Phonics Fun, the
Jolly Phonics Activity Books, My First Letter Sounds and Jolly
Stories. They contain a mixture of activities, stories and writing
practice to gradually introduce children to the 42 letter sounds.

Whilst these resources can also be used in the primary setting,

additional resources for the classroom (many of which can also
be used at home) can be found on page 18.

15
2. Core Teaching Resources
The core teaching resources of the Jolly Phonics programme
provide different options for delivery of content. There is a choice
between: the interactive classroom software, Jolly Phonics for
the Whiteboard; black-and-white photocopiable The Phonics
Handbook; and the full-colour Jolly Phonics Teacher’s and Pupil
Books.

* * * *

Each of these core teaching resources provide the key content,

but are supplied in different ways and for different budgets. They
can be used alongside each other, or independently, to provide
your children with the highest quality education.

After the initial year of Jolly Phonics, we also have core teaching
resources for the additional six years of Jolly Grammar, teaching
key spelling, punctuation and grammar concepts. For each year
we once again have black-and white photocopiable Grammar
Handbooks, as well as full-colour Jolly Grammar Teacher’s and
Pupil Books.

2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year 7th year
of school of school of school of school of school of school
ages 5-6 ages 6-7 ages 7-8 ages 8-9 ages 9-10 ages 10-11

* * * * * *

* * * * * *

16
3. Decodable Readers
Our range of over 145 Jolly Phonics Decodable Readers give
children the opportunity to practice their blending skills and
start reading.

* all readers
These books are decodable, meaning that the text only contains
words using letter sounds and spelling patterns that children
have already been taught, meaning it is always within their
reach. Tricky words are shown in each book, alongside reading
comprehension topics and a handy checklist detailing the skills
and knowledge requirements in order to tackle it.
Little Word

E-readers also
Read and

(Level 0)

(Level 1)

(Level 2)

(Level 3)

(Level 4)

(Level 5)
available to
Orange

Purple
Yellow

Green
Books

download via Blue

Red
See

www.jollylearning.co.uk

Books per pack 14 24 21 24 24 18 18 6

Pages per book 12 8 12 8 12 16 16 16

New Tricky Words 7
Introduced - - Book 7 4 10 20 20 11
Only

Total Tricky Words 7

Covered - - Book 7 11 21 41 61 72
Only

New Alternative - - - - 1 5 12 10
Spellings Introduced
Total Alternative - - - - 1 6 18 28
Spellings Covered
Sentences per page 1 1-3 1 1 2 4 4 4
Word Words
Pink & Blue & Orange &
Closest Book Band - - Pink
(1)
Red
Yellow
(3)
Green Turqoise
Purple
(8)
(1 & 2) (4 & 5) (6 & 7)

17
4. Additional Classroom Resources
We have a wide range of resources, for both the Jolly Phonics
and the Jolly Grammar programmes, that are perfect for
supporting your children’s learning. These include exciting DVDs,
a wide range of posters, songs, puppets, Finger Phonics Books,
workbooks, flashcards, magnetic letters, reading assessments,
apps, Big Books, plays and more!

Many of these resources can be found bundled together in our

Starter Kit and Classroom Kit, enabling you to get all the best
Jolly Phonics resources in one go. Many of these items are also
suitable for use at home.
*
*

* *

Additionally, we have a selection of Jolly Phonics apps available

to download on Apple and Android phones and tablets.
These apps include a wide variety of games for children and
teaching resources for teachers.
* all apps

18
Spelling, punctuation and grammar resources
As the programme systematically progresses through the primary
years, children are introduced to brand new spelling, punctuation
and grammar concepts (all the while revising and consolidating
previously learnt knowledge). A selection of exciting resources to
support this learning include the Jolly Dictionary, Blends Wheels,
workbooks, Big Books and more!
*
*

For further information on all of our Jolly Phonics and Grammar

resources, please visit our online shop at www.jollylearning.co.uk.
19
Jolly Phonics and Grammar Training
We have a range of opportunities for anyone looking to undertake
training, be it a beginner to phonics or someone simply looking
for a refresher course. These options include a mixture of online
and in-house training.

1. Whole School Training

Our network of over 350 international Jolly Phonics Professional
Trainers are independent, experienced teachers who use
Jolly Phonics extensively in their schools. They have achieved
excellent results with the programme and are keen to share their
experiences.

Our trainers are able to provide tailor-made training to meet

the needs of your school. Sessions are developed to ensure that
there is consistent teaching of the programme throughout your
school.

2. Attend a scheduled course

Meet and network with other
teachers. Get lots of practical
ideas and advice from trainers
who have used the programme
successfully for a number of
years and seen the difference it
can make to children’s learning.
Choose from a range of courses
available around the world.

3. Online courses
Packed with audio, text and digital footage, these courses
provide an interactive and flexible way to study. They will equip
you with the skills, knowledge and understanding you need to
teach the programme effectively to your class.

Full details for all of our training options can be found via our
website at www.jollylearning.co.uk/training
20
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between precursive and print letters?
Precursive letters have exit strokes (little flicks) at the end of
each letter, which will encourage joined-up handwriting. Print
letters do not have these.
Unfortunately, we do not offer any of our resources in fully cursive
letters.

Where can I purchase Jolly Phonics and Grammar materials?

All of our resources are available via our online shop, and we
ship worldwide! You can find this at:
www.jollylearning.co.uk/product-category/uk-shop
We also have a wide range of stockists all over the world who
you can purchase from. This may enable you to save both time
and money on delivery. Full contact details for all of our stockists
can be found here: www.jollylearning.co.uk/stockists-2

How can I see proven success with the programme?

We have a wide range of Case Studies and Research that has
been undertaken all over the world, all showing schools that
have improved their levels of literacy with the programme. You
can view all of these via the Evidence section of our website:
www.jollylearning.co.uk/evidence

Do you have any free resources available?

Alongside sample pages for all of our resources within each
individual listing on our online shop, we also have an entire
Resource Bank filled with useful materials.
These include fun activity worksheets, helpful teaching guides
and explanatory videos of the key skills, amongst so much more.
To view all of these resources, please visit the Resource Bank:
www.jollylearning.co.uk/resource-bank

21
How to use Jolly Phonics and Grammar!
Here, you can see how the Jolly Phonics and Grammar resources
tie together to build confident and fluent readers and writers!

This spread will show the teaching of the ai letter sound through
various resources within the programme.

Introduce the new letter Tell the

sound with our core story,
teaching resources sing the
song and
perform
the action

SONG (Tune: Camptow

n Races)
My ear hurt.
I was in pain.
/ai/? /ai/?

My ear hurt.
I was in pain.
What did you try to
say?
ACTION: Cup
your hand over
your ear as if
you are trying to
hear something,
and say ai?

Practice blending,
segmenting and
dictation with our
word banks
Practice blending
skills with our
decodable
readers

22
 Discover fun activities to
support learning of the
new letter sound

Make a
raindrop mobile

Write words with

an /ai/ sound inside
each raindrop.
Develop writing and fine
motor skills in our workbooks
and activity books

Progress through the years as alternative spellings of the

letter sound are introduced. Starting with common alternative
spellings <a_e> (as in ‘snake’) and <ay> (as in ‘play’), all the
way through to more complex alternatives like <ei> (as in ‘vein’)
and <eigh> (as in ‘weigh’).

To find out more information about the Jolly Phonics and

Grammar programme, please visit www.jollylearning.co.uk.

23
 Connect with us
Email: info@jollylearning.co.uk
www.jollylearning.co.uk

2022-01

Follow us on Find us on Follow us on

Instagram Facebook at Twitter
@jollylearning Jolly Learning @jollylearning

77 Hornbeam Road, 82 Winter Sport Lane,

Buckhurst Hill, Williston, VT 05495, USA
Essex, IG7 6DL, UK Tel: 1-800 488-2665
Tel: 020 8501 0405 Fax: (802) 864-7626
24