Parent’s Literacy

Phonics at Victory Primary School

At Victory Primary school we use the Jolly Phonics scheme to teach children their letter sounds and help them to begin their journey to becoming confident and fluent readers. Below is some key information for parents/carers to help you support your child at home. 

What is Jolly Phonics?

Jolly Phonics teaches phonics thoroughly and enjoyably through EYFS and KS1 years at school. The letter sounds are taught in a fun, multisensory way. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.

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 sounds are taught in a special order, this enables children to be able to read and write simple words at the very early stages.

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

Learning the letter sounds

In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not just the alphabet. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. The sounds are in seven groups. Some sounds are written with two letters, such as ee and or. These are called digraphs.  

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, but they are used to remind children of the sound if/when they forget.

Pronouncing the letter sounds and learning the actions

Please click on the link below to hear the sounds being pronounced and the actions for each sound.

Sounds, actions and songs

Please click on the links below to hear the songs for each sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVKt4LltdA0

The sounds are also organised in their Jolly Phonics groups, please see the table below:-

How much does your child remember?

Below are the letters without any picture prompts or actions, how many sounds can your child remember?

Jolly Phonics Sound Order

If they need extra help, you can use the songs or the actions to help them to remember!