Unlock the power of Jolly Phonics and transform how children learn to read and write!
For the last 35 years, Jolly Phonics has been producing phonics resources that align with the requirements of structured literacy and the Science of Reading.
Discover the Science of Reading with Jolly Phonics – a proven, effective method developed by classroom teachers. This comprehensive approach teaches children to read and write through a systematic and multi-sensory approach, fostering strong phonemic awareness and decoding skills. Engaging children in a fun and interactive way, Jolly Phonics is an evidence-based program that equips educators with the tools to make every child a confident and proficient reader.
How Jolly Phonics aligns with the Science of Reading?
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Systematic, synthetic phonics approach for teaching children to read, write and spell
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Multi-sensory lessons ensure children are taught decoding for reading and encoding for spelling
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Explicit instruction for teaching the 42 main sounds of English (including the alphabet) plus short and long vowels, digraphs and diphthongs
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Detailed teaching guidance to enable children to identify a sound wherever it is in the word
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Instruction and strategies for teaching irregular high frequency words
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Ample opportunity for children to apply their letter sound knowledge within each lesson as well as through a range of decodable texts
NEW Jolly Phonics Resources
As part of a company-wide refresh, we are delighted to be able to present a selection of brand new resources that will help you get your children on their reading and writing journeys. Be it our activity-packed Bumper Book of Phonics Fun or our beautifully illustrated Finger Phonics Books, the exciting theatre of Jolly Plays or our stunning, photographic Our World Readers, our fantastic range is sure to be loved by teachers and children alike.
How Jolly Phonics works
Jolly Phonics is a comprehensive program, based on the proven, fun and muliti-sensory synthetic phonics method that gets children reading and writing from an early age. This means that we teach the 42 letter sounds as opposed to the alphabet. There are five key skills that children need to master phonics which include learning how to write the letter sounds, how to blend the sounds for reading, and how to identify the sounds in words for spelling and writing. Alongside this, children learn about tricky words as well as being introduced to the alternative spellings of vowels. These five key skills form the foundation that children build on with each year of grammar teaching.
Results that speak for themselves
Jolly Phonics had a significant impact on Windham Primary School in Southern Maine.
Before implementing the program, only a few students read beyond level 4 in the Kindergarten Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).
However, after adopting Jolly Phonics, many students reached DRA4 and even higher levels, with some reading a year or more above their grade level. This new approach reduced below-grade-level numbers by one-third compared to 2017, and by over one-half compared to 2016 and 2018.
Moreover, the percentage of students ending their kindergarten year above grade level more than doubled compared to 2017 and tripled compared to 2016 and 2018. On average, the number of students performing well below or below the benchmark dropped from 55% to 27%, while the number of students performing above the benchmark rose from 17% to 46%.
Jolly Phonics continues for the next 6 years with…
The program continues throughout the school years, by extending the earlier phonics teaching with further spelling, grammar and punctuation concepts. Each year of teaching provides continuous revision and consolidation of topics taught in previous years. Children are also taught the core concepts of grammar and punctuation, starting with simple age-appropriate definitions, which are gradually built on with each year of teaching. The teaching continues to be multi-sensory with actions and colour coding (fitting with Montessori) for parts of speech to help children develop their understanding of how language works. The systematic program means children are given the tools that they need to independently write what they want clearly and with expression.
With spelling, punctuation and grammar (or SPaG) now more prominent in curricula around the world we have been extending our literacy program to go up to age 11. Our program has been at the forefront of this teaching and meets the aims of the US Common Core State Standards.
“The systematic teaching of spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary is evident in the students daily writing. They are able to recognize and use parts of grammar in their reading and writing.”
Program Progression