Helping the school achieve
by Dr Marlynne
Grant,
Chartered
Educational Psychologist
When I first
came across Jolly Phonics
I was looking for an early literacy programme
which was in line with the experimental research. I was impressed
by the main elements of the Jolly
Phonics teaching method and its
other important feature: a brisk pace of learning. It advocates
learning letter sounds at the rate of one per day. This pace
enables children from the outset to see how sounds are used in
real words. Its auditory training and interactive teaching methods
also engage children’s attention and help their memory so
that they can learn at an early stage how to use their knowledge
of sounds to read and write independently.
My role as Educational Psychologist involves
me daily with children who have reading and writing difficulties.
At St Michael’s School, I have had close contact with Trudy
Wainwright as Reading and Special Needs Teacher. We would plan
individual teaching for such children and as I became familiar
with Jolly Phonics
I began to introduce ideas from
The Phonics Handbook. However our
discussions were always far-reaching and we took every opportunity
to talk about whole school literacy teaching. I was keen to introduce
a systematics phonics programme like
Jolly Phonics for all children in
Reception from the beginning, not just as an afterthought when
difficulties arose. Trudy was receptive but cautious as she knew
how well-established existing teaching practices were at Key Stage
1. Then she attended some training in
Jolly Phonics which I gave to a
group of Speech & Language Therapists. Trudy took further
ideas back to St Michael’s where increasing interest was
growing among the staff. Eventually a decision was taken, supported
by Senior Management, to ‘go for it’.
Some apprehensions remained about the changes,
and staff wondered if they could possibly teach at the astonishing
rate of one letter sound per day. But success was within their
grasp and after three months they had covered all 42 phonemes
and had achieved excellent reading and spelling results. What
marked out the success at St Michael’s was their decision
as a whole staff to raise their expectations and ‘take the
plunge’. This made all the difference – a partial dabbling
would have been much less effective. The
Using Jolly Phonics video
and some whole-school training helped
to give staff the confidence and to firm their resolve during
the planning stage. The school also involved parents who helped
to prepare the materials for the Summer Term start date.
Inevitably, the initial focus with
Jolly Phonics
is on teaching the letter sounds and actions, which is great
fun. But there is more to the teaching method and schools often
need some guidance and encourage-ment to get children to use these
sounds in words from the very beginning. Within the first two
weeks of starting the programme, the children know sufficient
letter sounds to blend them into real words and to identify the
sounds in real words. Such success is marvellous but it is quite
within the reach of all schools given a willingness to make changes,
to raise expectations and to have a go at a brisk pace of learning.
At St Michael’s we are now into another
academic year. The new Reception children have already begun
the Jolly Phonics
programme and those children now in Year 1 who started last Summer
Term need to move on, to sustain and develop their flying start.
Again at this point schools may need some support and encouragement
to understand the complexities of the next stages where further
phonics, alternative spellings, more advanced blending and phonological
awareness training, and a systematic spelling programme should
be tackled. All these aspects are covered in the Jolly Phonics programme,
but this is not always recognised. Some schools just introduce
the basic letter sounds, then leave it at that. Their children
will certainly have had a flying start, but their rate of progress
is less likely to be sustained.
Thanks to the
Jolly Phonics programe, the special
needs provision at St Michael’s can now be more precisely
targeted to the very few children who have been slow starters.
As their Educational Psychologist I have already been asked to
assess two of these children. Because of their systematic start
it was possible to identify the specific letter sounds which these
children had not grasped. In both cases it was also evident that
the children needed a greater emphasis on blending and phonological
awareness training.
Given the enthusiasm and raised expectations
which Jolly Phonics makes possible I look forward to working with
St Michael’s in the future to deepen their understanding
of Jolly Phonics
and to witness continuing progress in their literacy achievements.
It has been exciting to work with them.
