A Case Study

These national headlines changed ourattitudes to the teaching of reading...

Behind them was one school.

ABOUT three years ago theDeputy Headteacher brought

a copy of The Phonics Handbookinto our school. She asked me tohave a look at it and I liked whatI saw. The programme was well-structured, with eye-catchingworksheets. After discussionswith our Management Team, wedecided to use some JollyPhonics ideas with my Primary 1class, but at a slightly slower

pace than that suggested in ThePhonics Handbook. I didn’t feelthat my children would be ableto cope with the introduction ofsix new sounds each week.How wrong could I be? The

children loved the programmewith its multisensory approachto the teaching of phonics. Atthe end of the first year, all of thepupils had retainedmore soundsthan in any previous year.

It was aroundthis time thatthe schoolwasapproachedby Clack-mannanshireCouncil totake part in aresearch pro-ject conduct-ed by the Uni-versity of StAndrew’s,which wasan impor-tant partof Clack-

mannanshire’sEarly LearningInitiative. Mynew class andI were to use as y n t h e t i cp h o n i c sprogrammewhich madeuse of manyof the JollyPhonics ideasand materials.Having seen

the results the pupils hadachieved using only part of theJolly Phonics programme and at aslowed-down pace, I was excitedabout the possibilities of thisinitiative. I still had reservationsabout the quickpace of intro-ducing thesounds, theearly intro-duction of writ-ing,and thewhole-class approach.Would my children be able tocope with this from almost theirfirst week in school?All that worry for nothing! The

children loved the routine of ourdaily phonic lessons.They wouldchoose to read the FingerPhonics books on their own inthe reading corner. They formedletters and words using buildingblocks, rods and chalk boards.They weretotally stim-ulated andalways eagerto learn more.The whole-class approachmeant that there was more timefor direct teaching and the lessable children thrived, workingwith and learning from the moreable. By the end of their first yearin school, almost all the childrenin the class were reading abovetheir chronological age andwereable to write stories on theirown. I was amazed by what theyhad achieved.We are now through with the

restrictions so vital for the

integrity of the research project.This year we have been able toinvolve parents more and earlier.We held a reading workshop forparents and for the first timeever we had a 100% turn out!Parents had the opportunity tolook at the materials being used,see a lesson being taught anddiscuss ways in which they couldhelp their child at home. Like all

children, myclass love tosee theirparents in-volved in

school, and tohave a chance to show off whatthey can do.The Jolly Phonics materials are

very suited to ClackmannanshireCouncil’s approach to theteaching of reading and writingin the early years. The FingerPhonics books, the Jolly PhonicsWall Frieze and the worksheetsphotocopied from The PhonicsHandbook are beautifully illus-trated and presented. Children

love usingthem. Afterseeing theresults we

have achievedin the last few years, I only wish Ihad discovered the programmeyears ago. Give it a go – you willbe amazed by the success yourpupils will experience!

What madetheir teaching

so special?

Let Deerpark Primary School*

tell you in their own words...* in Clackmannanshire, Scotland

Making the change to Jolly Phonicsby Annette Steele, Primary 1 teacher

“Give it a go – you’llbe amazed by yourpupils’ success!”

“After one year, nearlyall the children couldwritestories on their own!”

Annette teaches the “ie”sound with its action – thechildren are saying “Aye

aye!” like sailors!

Derrie’s work istypical of 5-year-olds inAnnette’s class taughtwith Jolly Phonics

Year Group Names:

Average age, mid-year: 5 yearsScotland Primary 1England/Wales ReceptionNew Zealand Year 1NSW Kindergarten

IN 1992, we embarked on astudy of how phonics wastaught in Scottish PrimarySchools. Although most Scottishschools had continued to teachphonics evenwhen wholel a n g u a g eapproacheswere invogue, theteaching hadbecomemuchless intensive,often taking as long as threeyears for the programme to becompleted. The phonicsteaching had also becomedivorced from other aspects ofteaching reading, probably dueto a demise of phonics reading-scheme books. In one of theschools we studied, a teacherhad an accelerated phonicsprogramme, which included theuse of explicit sounding andblending in order to read unfam-iliar words. Herchildren had amuch betterlevel of read-ing skill, andthis supe-riority wasmaintained over the three yearsof the study. At this time webecame interested in thesynthetic phonics taught inGermany and Austria, in whichchildren are taught to read bylearning letter-sounds and beingshown how letters can be usedto build up words. Mostphonics in Britain is of theanalytic kind, where wholewords are shown andchildren are shown howto segment them intoletter sounds.Wedecided to examinewhether synthetic phonicswas more effective than thetraditional analytic phonics.Children were taught asmall number of letters, and aseach letter was introduced theywere shown it in the beginning,

middle and end position ofwords. Then they were shown apicture of a word, said the nameof the picture, and selected theletters to make up the word.Having done this they were thentaught to sound each letter andblend the sounds together topronounce the word. As this wasan experimental programme,materials from Jolly Phonics wereused to assist in the teaching.We

used the Fin-ger Phonicsbooks, thealphabet song,and clips fromthe JollyPhonics Videos.Our schemediffered slight-

ly from Jolly Phonics in that wedid not do any phonologicalawareness training withoutprint, we did not use letter-sound mnemonics except to aidpronunciation, and we taughtexplicit word-building usingmagnetic letters. In addition,children were taught to soundthe letters without an ‘uh’ sound(e.g. ‘nn’ rather than ‘nuh’ for theletter ‘n’), and smoothly to co-articulate the sounds in order to

pronounce theword. This isthe methodused in Austria.After two

terms in school,the children

were tested, and the twomethods of teaching compared.We found that a systematicprogramme of analytic phonicswas effective, and that the

children were

reading appropriately for theirchronological age. However, thechildren taughtwith syntheticphonics werereading andspelling sevenmonths aheadof their chrono-logical age, andhad very high levels of rhymeand phoneme awareness. At theend of the year, when all of thechildren had been in school forthree terms, the syntheticphonics children werefound to have con-tinued to makegains in reading andspelling, being 11and 14 months aheadof chronological age respectively.In the Table below, we present

the end of year results at DeerparkPrimary School in Clackmannan-

shire. It can beseen that onlyone child hadreading skillswhich werelagging behindchronologicalage, despite this

school’s being in an area of fairlysevere economic deprivation.Weconclude that any programme ofteaching readingwill be effective if itincludes systematic phonics

teaching. However,synthetic phonics pro-grammes, suchasJollyPhonics, will givethe quickest and

best results and willlead to a significant reduction inunderachievement.

“Weaskedwhethersynthetic phonics

(like Jolly Phonics)wasmoreeffective thananalytic phonics”

“Programmeslike Jolly Phonicssignificantly reduceunderachievement”

“Onlyonechild readbelowactual age”

Putting phonics teaching to the testby Dr Rhona Johnstone and JoyceWatson (pictured left),Researchers at the School of Psychology, University of St Andrews

“We found thatprogrammes like Jolly

Phonics gave thequickestandbest results”

On average,the children were

11 months ahead ofactual age in reading!

And 14 monthsahead in spelling!

Results of StandardisedReading and Spelling Tests

Annette’s Primary 1 class, after one year of school

Pupil: Boy/ Actual Reading Spelling Reading SpellingGirl: Age: Age: Age: Gain: Gain:

BU g 5:8 6:6 7:0 +0:10 +1:4CM g 5:11 6:11 7:1 +1:0 +1:2EN g 6:3 7:2 7:1 +0:11 +0:10HE g 5:5 5:5 6:2 0:0 +0:9JS g 6:3 7:0 7:8 +0:9 +1:5KE g 5:9 7:0 7:5 +1:3 +1:8MN g 5:11 6:5 6:4 +0:6 +0:5NL g 5:5 8:1 8:3 +2:8 +2:10EN g 5:9 6:3 6:7 +0:6 +0:10UT g 5:10 7:2 7:1 +1:4 +1:3SF g 5:7 7:1 7:5 +1:6 +1:10SH g 6:0 7:7 7:8 +1:7 +1:8TL g 5:10 6:0 6:8 +0:2 +0:10YO g 5:5 6:5 7:0 +1:0 +1:7YK g 5:7 6:6 6:7 +0:11 +1:0CL b 5:11 6:6 6:6 +0:7 +0:7CK b 5:9 6:5 6:6 +0:8 +0:9DE b 5:7 5:4 5:0 -0:3 -0:7EK b 6:3 7:4 7:8 +1:1 +1:5EH b 5:5 6:3 7:1 +0:10 +1:8KM b 5:11 6:0 6:2 +0:1 +0:3EO b 5:4 5:5 5:6 +0:1 +0:2OY b 6:1 8:1 8:6 +2:0 +2:5RT b 5:9 7:0 7:2 +1:3 +1:5TE b 5:7 7:1 7:2 +1:6 +1:7

Average (Girls): 5:9 6:9 7:1 +1:0 +1:4Average (Boys): 5:9 6:7 6:9 +0:10 +1:0

Average (Class): 5:9 6:8 6:11 +0:11 +1:2

% above Actual Age: 92.3% 96%

Reading Test:British Ability Scales Word Reading TestSpelling Test: Schonell Spelling Test

All ages shown in years and months.

LIKE all schools, we are alwayslooking for ways to improve

our teaching. When we firstheard of a new approach tophonics teaching which wasreportedly achieving startlingimprovements inreading attain-ment, we decid-ed to find outmore. Whileimpressed by theJolly Phonics results, we wereinitially sceptical about the pace.As canny Scots, we decided thatfor our first dip into the water ofsynthetic phonics, we would tryonly three sounds per week,rather then six as recommendedin The Phonics Handbook. Evenso, this was more than we would

have taught with our previousanalytical approach, and despitethis cautious pace, we weredelighted with the gains pupilsmade over that first year. Wewere now convinced that

the Jolly Phonicsapproach to theteaching ofreading coulddeliver sig-

nificant gains forour pupils.We were enthusiastic partici-pants when ClackmannanshireCouncil offered DeerparkPrimary the opportunity to be apilot school for their EarlyLearning Initiative for Literacy,since we were to use a syntheticphonics approach designed by

the University of St Andrewswhich incorporated the keyelements of Jolly Phonics. Thishighly-structured programmewas welcomed by teachers andthe success of pupils hassurpassed even our wildestexpectations. At the end ofPrimary 1, 93% of pupils werereading at above theirchronological age, and wereshowing, on average, gains ofeleven months over their actualage! Another session has justfinished and the results remainjust as impressive.And the really good news?Deerpark Primary is not a schoolin the leafy sub-urbs. The schoolserves an area ofsignificant socio-economic dis-advantage. Ourheads are up – staff, pupils andparents. The feeling of

professional satisfaction thatcomes from being part of an

exciting and on-going successstory is thereason whyeach and every

one of us cameinto teaching – to know that wecan make a difference!

RAISING levels of attainment isa top priority for education

services in Clackmannanshire.Funding for early interventionenabled Clackmannanshire toforge aheadwith plans toexamine themost effectivemethods ofteaching youngchildren to read. The Councilcommissioned the University ofSt Andrews to conduct aresearch programme in Primary1 classes in the authority.Generally, teachers meet the

announcement of any neweducation initiative with adegree of apprehension, andthose involved at the beginningof the early interventionprogramme in Clackmannan-

shire were no exception. Manyteachers did not believe thattheir pupils could cope with thepace or demands of theprogramme, and the return to

w h o l e - c l a s st e a c h i n gmethods metwith someanxiety. With-out supported

staff development, and trainingin the techniques to be used, thisinitiative would havebeen less likely tosucceed.As the develop-

ment officer for theauthority’s early learn-ing initiative, it was myresponsibility to oversee the staffdevelopment and implemen-tation of the research pro-

grammes. The most successfulelement, within the teachingprogrammes devised by theUniversity of St Andrews, usedJolly Phonics materials as aresource.Eighteen months on, we are

delighted that everyone’s earlyapprehensions have beenovercome. Staff and pupilsthoroughly enjoy the whole-class teaching sessions, and thelevels of attainment in Primary 1

classes surpassed all expect-ations. Unsurprisingly, reactionsfrom all interested parties in thecommunity have been very

positive. As a result, all schools inClackmannanshire have receivednot only training to support the

explicit teaching pro-gramme written bythe researchers, butalso a selection ofJolly Phonicsmaterials

to support its delivery!Every child in Clackmannanshirecan now benefit from theeffective teaching of reading inthe early years of primary school.

Supporting staff through the changesby Lesley Robertson,Early Intervention Development Officer for Clackmannanshire Council

“Every school in Clackmannanshirehas received Jolly Phonics materials,

so now each child can benefit”

“Everyone thoroughlyenjoys the whole-classteaching sessions”

Helping us make a differenceby Lorna Spence, Headteacher

“Pupils’ success hassurpassed our wildest

expectations...”

“...yet Deerpark isnot a school in theleafy suburbs!”

WHEN my younger sonWilliam started school I was

asked if he could be includedwith other children in a pilotscheme to teach them to read ina different way from thatpreviously used in the school.I knew William was bright for

his age. So was his older brotherAndrew, but Iwas amazedat how muchearlier Will-iam startedreading thanAndrew had when he started

school. William seems moreinterested in reading andwriting, and has even startedwriting and illustrating astorybook himself.I am very proud of both of my

children butfeel Williamhas had aflying startat school

with this newmethod of teaching phonics.

“William, 5, hasstarted writing hisown storybook”

A flying start with Jolly Phonicsby Maureen Nelson,mother of two