These national headlines changed our
attitudes to the teaching of reading ...
Behind them was one school.
A Case Study
What made
their teaching
so special?
Let Deerpark Primary School* Annette teaches the “ie”
sound with its action – the
tell you in their own words... children are saying “Aye
aye!” like sailors!
* in Clackmannanshire, Scotland
Making the change to Jolly Phonics integrity of the research project.
This year we have been able to
involve parents more and earlier.
by Annette Steele, Primary 1 teacher We held a reading workshop for
parents and for the first time
BOUT three years ago the pace than that suggested in The the results the pupils had ever we had a 100% turn out!
A Deputy Headteacher brought
a copy of The Phonics Handbook
Phonics Handbook. I didn’t feel
that my children would be able
achieved using only part of the Parents had the opportunity to
Jolly Phonics programme and at a look at the materials being used,
into our school. She asked me to to cope with the introduction of slowed-down pace, I was excited see a lesson being taught and
have a look at it and I liked what six new sounds each week. about the possibilities of this discuss ways in which they could
I saw. The programme was well- How wrong could I be? The initiative. I still had reservations help their child at home. Like all
structured, with eye-catching children loved the programme about the quick children, my
worksheets. After discussions with its multisensory approach pace of intro- “After one year, nearly class love to
with our Management Team, we to the teaching of phonics. At ducing the see their
decided to use some Jolly the end of the first year, all of the sounds, the all the children could write parents in-
Phonics ideas with my Primary 1 pupils had retained more sounds early intro- stories on their own!” volved in
class, but at a slightly slower than in any previous year. duction of writ- school, and to
It was around ing,and the whole-class approach. have a chance to show off what
this time that Would my children be able to they can do.
the school was cope with this from almost their The Jolly Phonics materials are
approached first week in school? very suited to Clackmannanshire
by Clack- All that worry for nothing! The Council’s approach to the
mannanshire children loved the routine of our teaching of reading and writing
Council to daily phonic lessons. They would in the early years. The Finger
take part in a choose to read the Finger Phonics books, the Jolly Phonics
research pro- Phonics books on their own in Wall Frieze and the worksheets
ject conduct- the reading corner. They formed photocopied from The Phonics
ed by the Uni- letters and words using building Handbook are beautifully illus-
versity of St blocks, rods and chalk boards. trated and presented. Children
Andrew’s, They were love using
Derrie’s work is
which was totally stim- “Give it a go – you’ll them. After
typical of 5-year-olds in
Annette’s class taught an impor- ulated and be amazed by your seeing the
with Jolly Phonics tant part always eager results we
of Clack- to learn more. pupils’ success!” have achieved
mannanshire’s The whole-class approach in the last few years, I only wish I
Early Learning meant that there was more time had discovered the programme
Initiative. My for direct teaching and the less years ago. Give it a go – you will
new class and able children thrived, working be amazed by the success your
I were to use a with and learning from the more pupils will experience!
synthetic able. By the end of their first year
p h o n i c s in school, almost all the children
programme in the class were reading above Year Group Names:
which made their chronological age and were Average age, mid-year: 5 years
use of many able to write stories on their
Scotland Primary 1
of the Jolly own. I was amazed by what they
England/Wales Reception
Phonics ideas had achieved.
New Zealand Year 1
and materials. We are now through with the
NSW Kindergarten
Having seen restrictions so vital for the
Putting phonics teaching to the test
by Dr Rhona Johnstone and Joyce Watson (pictured left),
Researchers at the School of Psychology, University of St Andrews
middle and end position of reading appropriately for their the end of year results at Deerpark
words. Then they were shown a chronological age. However, the Primary School in Clackmannan-
picture of a word, said the name children taught shire. It can be
of the picture, and selected the with synthetic “Programmes seen that only
letters to make up the word. phonics were one child had
Having done this they were then reading and like Jolly Phonics reading skills
taught to sound each letter and spelling seven significantly reduce which were
N 1992, we embarked on a blend the sounds together to months ahead lagging behind
I study of how phonics was pronounce the word. As this was
taught in Scottish Primary an experimental programme,
of their chrono- underachievement” chronological
logical age, and age, despite this
Schools. Although most Scottish materials from Jolly Phonics were had very high levels of rhyme school’s being in an area of fairly
schools had continued to teach used to assist in the teaching.We and phoneme awareness. At the severe economic deprivation.We
phonics even used the Fin- end of the year, when all of the conclude that any programme of
when whole “We asked whether ger Phonics children had been in school for teaching reading will be effective if it
language books, the three terms, the synthetic includes systematic phonics
approaches
synthetic phonics alphabet song, phonics children were teaching. However,
were in (like Jolly Phonics) was and clips from found to have con- “Only one synthetic phonics pro-
vogue, the the Jolly tinued to make grammes, such as Jolly
teaching had more effective than Phonics Videos. gains in reading and child read below Phonics, will give
become much analytic phonics” Our scheme spelling, being 11 actual age” the quickest and
less intensive, differed slight- and 14 months ahead best results and will
often taking as long as three ly from Jolly Phonics in that we of chronological age respectively. lead to a significant reduction in
years for the programme to be did not do any phonological In the Table below, we present underachievement.
completed. The phonics awareness training without
teaching had also become print, we did not use letter-
divorced from other aspects of sound mnemonics except to aid
teaching reading, probably due pronunciation, and we taught Results of Standardised
to a demise of phonics reading- explicit word-building using Reading and Spelling Tests
scheme books. In one of the magnetic letters. In addition,
schools we studied, a teacher children were taught to sound Annette’s Primary 1 class, after one year of school
had an accelerated phonics the letters without an ‘uh’ sound Pupil: Boy/ Actual Reading Spelling Reading Spelling
programme, which included the (e.g. ‘nn’ rather than ‘nuh’ for the Girl: Age: Age: Age: Gain: Gain:
use of explicit sounding and letter ‘n’), and smoothly to co-
blending in order to read unfam- articulate the sounds in order to BU g 5:8 6:6 7:0 +0:10 +1:4
iliar words. Her pronounce the CM g 5:11 6:11 7:1 +1:0 +1:2
children had a “We found that word. This is EN g 6:3 7:2 7:1 +0:11 +0:10
HE g 5:5 5:5 6:2 0:0 +0:9
much better programmes like Jolly the method
used in Austria.
JS g 6:3 7:0 7:8 +0:9 +1:5
level of read- KE g 5:9 7:0 7:5 +1:3 +1:8
ing skill, and Phonics gave the quickest After two MN g 5:11 6:5 6:4 +0:6 +0:5
this supe- terms in school, NL g 5:5 8:1 8:3 +2:8 +2:10
riority was
and best results” the children EN g 5:9 6:3 6:7 +0:6 +0:10
UT g 5:10 7:2 7:1 +1:4 +1:3
maintained over the three years were tested, and the two
SF g 5:7 7:1 7:5 +1:6 +1:10
of the study. At this time we methods of teaching compared. SH g 6:0 7:7 7:8 +1:7 +1:8
became interested in the We found that a systematic TL g 5:10 6:0 6:8 +0:2 +0:10
synthetic phonics taught in programme of analytic phonics YO g 5:5 6:5 7:0 +1:0 +1:7
Germany and Austria, in which was effective, and that the YK g 5:7 6:6 6:7 +0:11 +1:0
children are taught to read by children were CL b 5:11 6:6 6:6 +0:7 +0:7
CK b 5:9 6:5 6:6 +0:8 +0:9
learning letter-sounds and being DE b 5:7 5:4 5:0 -0:3 -0:7
shown how letters can be used EK b 6:3 7:4 7:8 +1:1 +1:5
to build up words. Most EH b 5:5 6:3 7:1 +0:10 +1:8
phonics in Britain is of the
analytic kind, where whole
On average, KM
EO
b
b
5:11
5:4
6:0
5:5
6:2
5:6
+0:1
+0:1
+0:3
+0:2
words are shown and the children were OY
RT
b
b
6:1
5:9
8:1
7:0
8:6
7:2
+2:0
+1:3
+2:5
+1:5
children are shown how
to segment them into 11 months ahead of TE b 5:7 7:1 7:2 +1:6 +1:7
Average (Girls): 5:9 6:9 7:1 +1:0 +1:4
letter sounds.
We decided to examine actual age in reading! Average (Boys): 5:9 6:7 6:9 +0:10 +1:0
Average (Class): 5:9 6:8 6:11 +0:11 +1:2
whether synthetic phonics
was more effective than the % above Actual Age: 92.3% 96%
traditional analytic phonics. And 14 months
Children were taught a Reading Test:British Ability Scales Word Reading Test
small number of letters, and as
ahead in spelling! Spelling Test: Schonell Spelling Test
each letter was introduced they All ages shown in years and months.
were shown it in the beginning,
Helping us make a difference the University of St Andrews
which incorporated the key
elements of Jolly Phonics. This
by Lorna Spence, Headteacher highly-structured programme
was welcomed by teachers and
IKE all schools, we are always have taught with our previous
L looking for ways to improve analytical approach, and despite
our teaching. When we first this cautious pace, we were
the success of pupils has
surpassed even our wildest
expectations. At the end of
heard of a new approach to delighted with the gains pupils Primary 1, 93% of pupils were
phonics teaching which was made over that first year. We reading at above their
reportedly achieving startling were now convinced that chronological age, and were
improvements in the Jolly Phonics showing, on average, gains of
reading attain- “Pupils’ success has approach to the eleven months over their actual
ment, we decid- teaching of age! Another session has just
ed to find out surpassed our wildest reading could finished and the results remain
more. While expectations...” deliver sig- just as impressive.
impressed by the nificant gains for And the really good news? professional satisfaction that
Jolly Phonics results, we were our pupils. Deerpark Primary is not a school comes from being part of an
initially sceptical about the pace. We were enthusiastic partici- in the leafy sub- exciting and on-
As canny Scots, we decided that pants when Clackmannanshire urbs. The school “...yet Deerpark is going success
for our first dip into the water of Council offered Deerpark serves an area of
synthetic phonics, we would try Primary the opportunity to be a significant socio- not a school in the story reason
is the
why
only three sounds per week, pilot school for their Early economic dis- leafy suburbs!” each and every
rather then six as recommended Learning Initiative for Literacy, advantage. Our one of us came
in The Phonics Handbook. Even since we were to use a synthetic heads are up – staff, pupils and into teaching – to know that we
so, this was more than we would phonics approach designed by parents. The feeling of can make a difference!
school. William seems more
A flying start with Jolly Phonics interested in reading and
writing, and has even started
by Maureen Nelson, mother of two writing and illustrating a
storybook himself.
HEN my younger son his age. So was his older brother
W William started school I was Andrew, but I
I am very proud of both of my
children but
asked if he could be included was amazed “William, 5, has feel William
with other children in a pilot at how much has had a
scheme to teach them to read in earlier Will- started writing his flying start
a different way from that iam started own storybook” at school
previously used in the school. reading than with this new
I knew William was bright for Andrew had when he started method of teaching phonics.
Supporting staff through the changes
by Lesley Robertson,
Early Intervention Development Officer for Clackmannanshire Council
AISING levels of attainment is shire were no exception. Many grammes. The most successful
R a top priority for education teachers did not believe that element, within the teaching
services in Clackmannanshire. their pupils could cope with the programmes devised by the
Funding for early intervention pace or demands of the University of St Andrews, used
enabled Clackmannanshire to programme, and the return to Jolly Phonics materials as a
forge ahead w h o l e - c l a s s resource.
with plans to “Everyone thoroughly t e a c h i n g Eighteen months on, we are
examine the methods met delighted that everyone’s early
most effective enjoys the whole-class with some apprehensions have been
methods of teaching sessions” anxiety. With- overcome. Staff and pupils
teaching young out supported thoroughly enjoy the whole- positive. As a result, all schools in
children to read. The Council staff development, and training class teaching sessions, and the Clackmannanshire have received
commissioned the University of in the techniques to be used, this levels of attainment in Primary 1 not only training to support the
St Andrews to conduct a initiative would have explicit teaching pro-
research programme in Primary been less likely to “Every school in Clackmannanshire gramme written by
1 classes in the authority. succeed. the researchers, but
Generally, teachers meet the As the develop- has received Jolly Phonics materials, also a selection of
announcement of any new ment officer for the so now each child can benefit” Jolly Phonics materials
education initiative with a authority’s early learn- to support its delivery!
degree of apprehension, and ing initiative, it was my classes surpassed all expect- Every child in Clackmannanshire
those involved at the beginning responsibility to oversee the staff ations. Unsurprisingly, reactions can now benefit from the
of the early intervention development and implemen- from all interested parties in the effective teaching of reading in
programme in Clackmannan- tation of the research pro- community have been very the early years of primary school.
