A Study of the Jolly Phonics
Programme in the Teaching of
Reading and Writing of English:
Thaba Tseka, Lesotho 2021
Report Compiled by
Sharon Flint
sharon@dolencymru.org
20th December 2021
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Introduction
This paper presents the pretest and post-test reading scores of Kindergarten students as a means of
studying the impact of “Jolly Phonics” on Kindergarten English literacy skills in multiple provinces
throughout Thailand. Jolly Phonics is a multi-sensory method of teaching synthetic phonics. The
methodology is highly student-centered and fast paced. This allows students to begin encoding and
decoding right at the very beginning of the course and provides students with the necessary skills to blend
words at a much earlier stage than other methods. Students are not required to memorise word spelling,
but synthesize them using the knowledge provided during the classroom sessions, creating much more
impactful and meaningful education.
Scope of the Pilot Project
In order to evaluate the impact of this method, Government and City Hall schools were chosen across
six provinces in Thailand to take part in the study for the academic year beginning May 2022 through to
April 2023. Six schools from each province were approached to take part in the training and 2 schools
from each province were asked to act as “controls”. These schools would not be taking part in the
training, but agreed to carry out the same assessment tests as the pilot schools, allowing a comparison
of results to be carried out.
Selection Criteria
Only Government and City Hall schools were allowed to take part in the study to ensure a continuity o
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What is Jolly Phonics?
Jolly Phonics is the world’s leading systematic synthetic phonics programme.
Synthetic phonics involves teaching the main 42
English letter-sounds in isolation, whilst
simultaneously teaching children how to form,
blend and segment these sounds to read and write
words. Children are also taught “tricky words” that
do not follow the sound system. The programme
was created by international reading experts Sue
Lloyd and Sara Wernham and is published by one
of UK’s leading educational publishers, Jolly
Learning Ltd. With Jolly Phonics, the synthetic
phonics skills are taught alongside culturally
appropriate stories, songs and actions that make
Learners from Mazenod Primary School
learning to read and write multi-sensory, child-centred and lots of fun!
What do Teachers Say About Jolly Phonics?
We always get great feedback from teachers around the world that are using
Jolly Phonics. Typical comments refer to the fact that it is “easy”, “fun” and
“quickly effective”. Here are some comments made by Grade 1 teachers
trained in this pilot study:
Phonics is the best method for teaching pupils to read and write. They are able to
read and write sentences with correct spelling. Learner’s attendance is very good
because of Jolly Phonics they are happy because they understand what they are
doing.
Mamokete Tholoana Grade 1 Teacher
Learner’s progress is very good compared to the traditional method we were
using in the past, this new method (phonetic) is useful. Grade 1 Learners are
reading and writing very well with correct spelling.
Anna Khusu, Grade 1 Teacher
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Aims and Objectives
The aim of this Jolly Futures project was to run a comparative pilot of the Jolly Phonics
programme in the teaching of reading and writing of English in Government primary
schools in Thaba Tseka District, Lesotho and assess its impact on early reading outcomes.
The main objective of the evaluation was to determine if the synthetic phonics approach of
teaching reading and writing of English, specifically the Jolly Phonics programme, leads to
faster progress in the pupils’ reading and writing ability in English than those pupils not
taught using the programme.
Objectives
o To evaluate the impact of Jolly Phonics on the English reading and writing skills of
early grade pupils in government schools, so that an informed decision can be made
by the government as to whether to roll it out across all schools.
o To understand any challenges that may arise in the implementation of Jolly Phonics
in government schools and how these challenges can be overcome for any future
rollout of Jolly Phonics
Research Questions
1. What, if any, impact does the introduction of Jolly Phonics in Grade 1 classes have on
the initial literacy skills of pupils?
2. Are there any school or pupil characteristics that have affected any impact, produced
by the introduction of Jolly Phonics, on pupils’ initial literacy skills?
Methodology
Research Design
To answer the research questions, Literacy skills assessments will be undertaken with
pupils in the 6 pilot schools, as well as in 6 matched control schools, at the start of the pilot
study (baseline) and again at the end of the school year (end-line). The results of the Grade
1 pupils in the pilot schools will be compared with the Grade 1 pupils in the control schools
in order to answer the first research question, on the impact of Jolly Phonics. Their results
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will also be disaggregated in order to see whether any factors affected the impact,
answering research question 2.
The Schools: Selection and Context
Twelve (12) schools were selected in consultation with the Thaba Tseka Education Office.
Dolen Cymru have collaborated with schools there for 5 years and so there was familiarity
with the programme by many school leaders. Due to the short time frame of the pilot, it
was decided that the six pilot (6) schools who were familiar with Jolly Phonics should be
selected so that the implementation could be as smooth and as quick as possible. In each
of the six (6) pilot schools there were already Phonics Co-ordinators in place, so even
though they were not Grade 1 teachers, they were able to support and mentor the newly
inducted Grade 1 teachers. Table 1 below details the schools, their locations and, for the
Jolly Phonics schools, how many teachers were trained in Jolly Phonics in total (some pf
these prior to the Pilot).
Table 1 – Details of the Schools Involved in the Baseline and End-line Studies
SAMPLE
SCHOOL
LOCATION
NO. OF TEACHERS
TRAINED IN JOLLY
GROUP
PHONICS
Jolly
1. Auray Primary School
Mantsonyane
3
Phonics
2. Bocheletsana Primary School
Mantsonyane
3
Pilot
3. Loti Primary School
Thaba Tseka
2
Schools
4. Paray Primary School
Thaba Tseka
3
5. Katlehong Primary School
Thaba Tseka
3
6. Thaba Tseka Primary School
Thaba Tseka
3
Control
7. Bereng Primary School
Thaba Tseka
0
Schools
8. Kolbeg Primary School
Thaba Tseka
0
9. Chooko Primary School
Mantsonyane
0
10. Mahlakeng Primary School
Thaba Tseka
0
11. Majara Primary School
Thaba Tseka
0
12. Sefapanong Primary School
Thaba Tseka
0
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The Learner Sampling Procedures
In both the pilot and control schools, a minimum of 17 learners from each Grade 1 class
were randomly sampled from the register. An equal number of boys and girls were
selected. This sample was used to administer the baseline assessments. These same
sampled learners participated in the end-line assessments with some exceptions due to
non-attendance and school dropout or transfers.
Number of Pupils Sampled
Table 2
SAMPLE
SCHOOL
GROUP
Baseline
End-line
Number of
Number of
Pupils from
Pupils
Grade 1
Grade 1
Jolly Phonics
Auray Primary School
21
24
Pilot Schools
Bocheletsana Primary School
20
20
Loti Primary School
20
20
Paray Primary School
20
20
Katlehong Primary School
20
21
Thaba Tseka Primary School
21
20
Total Pilot Sample Size
122
125
Control
Kolbeg Primary School
18
18
Schools
Chooko Primary School
18
17
Mahlakeng Primary School
19
20
Majara Primary School
12
12
Sefapanong Primary School
20
20
Bereng Primary School
20
18
107
105
Total Control Sample Size
6
The average age across all Grade 1 samples was 6 years and 2 months at baseline and 6
years and 4 months at end-line. The pupils ages ranged from 6 to 8 years, although those
aged 8 years were in the minority.
School Demographics
Location of Schools
Location
Pilot Schools
Control Schools
Rural
0
0
Semi-Rural
6
6
Urban
0
0
Facilities
Facilities
Pilot Schools
Quality-
Conducive
Control Schools
0%
Conducive
8.3%
classroom,
Conducive but needs
blackboard,
improvement
100 % improvement
91.7 %
Unconducive
0% Unconducive
0%
Conducive but needs
charts, adequate
desks and
chairs/benches
The Assessment Tool
The assessment tool used to assess the pupils integrates existing EGRA and Phonics
Screening assessment tools. There are 3 tests within this Phonics Screening assessment
tool.
Letter Sounds Test – This test assesses pupils’ knowledge of the sounds of the English
language. It provides 41 graphemes and children are asked to pronounce the sound
(phoneme) that they represent, on-by-one. Some of the individual sounds are represented
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by two letters (diagraphs). All of the sounds are in lower-case, as this is easier for the earlier
grade pupils. There is no time limit to the test.
Word Reading Test –This test provides a list of decodable words, which pupils are asked
to read one-by-one. They are given a score out of 40, based on how many words that they
read correctly. Although it is not standardised, because the words are decodable. Some are
real words and others are pseudo words such as dat and rin. The test provides an indication
of how well the pupils have acquired the skills of phonic knowledge and blending, which
provide the foundation to becoming a successful reader.
Oral Vocabulary Test – This test contains 20 words, which each have a corresponding
picture on a separate pupil stimulus sheet. The assessor reads each word and asks the
learner to point to the corresponding picture. This provides an indicator of levels of
English comprehension.
Results
The data gathered during these assessments were as anticipated. The majority of learners,
in all schools, were low-scoring in all areas during the baseline tests. Many of these learners
had missed pre-school due to the pandemic which impacted their ability to recognise letter
sounds or read words. The third assessment provided more success, as many learners
could remember the English words and recognise the corresponding images.
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Mean Base Line Data
Pilot schools:
Control schools:
Test
Sample Group
Mean Score
Difference
Letter Sounds Test
Jolly Phonics
6.2
5.6
Control
0.6
Jolly Phonics
1.9
Control
0
Word Reading Test
Oral
Test
Vocabulary Jolly Phonics
Control
10.2
1.9
7.1
3.1
Table 3
Table 3 above shows that the Jolly Phonics Grade 1 group had a higher mean score on the
Letter Sounds Test, Word Test and Oral Vocabulary Test than the Control Group, with a
difference of 5.6 sounds, 1.9 words and 7.1 words. This suggests that groups were not
evenly matched at the baseline. This could be for a variety of reasons including location in
particular. Many of the control schools are out of town with a more rural population of
learners. These teachers have not worked with Dolen and the Jolly Phonics methods at all.
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Mean End-Line Data
Pilot schools
Control schools
Table 4
Test
Letter
Test
Word
Test
Sample Group
Sounds Jolly Phonics
Control
Reading Jolly Phonics
Control
Mean Score
Difference
32.8
32.2
0.6
19.5
0
Oral Vocabulary Jolly Phonics
13.7
Test
3.8
Control
19.5
9.9
Table 4 above shows that in the end-line assessments, the Jolly Phonics Grade 1 group had
a higher mean score on the Letter Sound, Word Reading and Oral Vocabulary Tests than
the control group. The pilot group scored more than 32 sounds (out of 41) in comparison
to the control group in test 1. This is impressive given the short time frame of being taught
with Jolly Phonics. The pilot group were able to read 19.5 words more than the control
group. These results show that the learners were able to apply their phonetic knowledge
to blend and read these words. The control group learners performed better in the oral
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vocabulary test and were able to recognise some spoken words (3.8 words) however the
pilot group scored significantly higher with over 9 more words. When you compare the
variance from baseline to end-line for each group these results become even more
apparent (see Table 5 below).
The Jolly Phonics pilot group started with a higher base line and finished with a higher endline, with an increase of 26.6 sounds. In comparison, the control group started with a lower
baseline but only increased with 0.6 sounds in the same 6 month period.
Table 5
Group
Test
Baseline
End-line
Variance
6.2
32.8
26.6
Score
1.9
19.5
17.6
Oral vocabulary
10.2
13.7
3.5
0.6
0.6
0
0
0
0
3.1
3.8
0.7
Sound Assessment
Score
Grade 1 Pilot
Words Assessment
Sound Assessment
Score
Grade 1 Control
Words Assessment
Score
Oral vocabulary
The Jolly Phonics pilot group saw an increase of 17.6 words in comparison to the control
group who were unable to read any words at both baseline and end-line. The control results
could be attributed to the main method used for reading in the control schools. The ‘Look
and Say’ or ‘Whole Word Recognition’ method is the most common approach which relies
on pupils memorising the word as a whole and retaining this information over a period of
time. The Word Test comprised of both real words and pseudo words such as dat and rin.
These pseudo words are unfamiliar and with memory as an approach, they will be unlikely
to read these words. The Jolly Phonics pilot group, at end-line, were able to read both real
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and pseudo words as they were able to apply their phonetic knowledge and blending skills
to read words regardless of if they had seen them before. The Jolly Phonics pilot group saw
an increase in 3.5 words in the oral test in comparison to 0.7 increase in the control group.
Disaggregated Data
End-line performance by gender in pilot schools:
It is interesting to note that performance according to gender was consistently equal
throughout the 3 tests:
Sounds – 32 Female / 33 Male
Words – 19 Female / 19 Male
Oral vocab – 14 Female / 13 Male
This is extremely important for Basotho schools were generally female learners outperform male learners. These results indicate that the Jolly Phonics approach is effective
for all learners regardless of their gender.
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End-line performance by school:
The following charts display the performance per school which is another extremely
important finding to share with individual schools. Teachers’ confidence levels varied
throughout the pilot and all schools were affected by COVID-19 measures which impacted
attendance. Variance in learners sound recognition is minimal however their ability to blend
to read words shows greater variance according to each school. These results highlight the
importance of teachers modelling and explicitly teaching learners how to apply their letter
sound knowledge and blend to read.
Katlehong Bocheletsana
Thaba Tseka
Auray
Loti
Paray
Katlehong Bocheletsana
Thaba Tseka
Auray
Loti
Paray
The lower word reading scores can be attributed to classes shifting and having less time to
practice blending as they move through the sets of sounds. This was noted by all teachers
in August, so a refresher workshop was led by the local trainer team to ensure all Grade 1
teachers were confident in applying the 8-step approach to teaching each sound and
making adjustments according to their particular context.
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Katlehong
Bocheletsana
Thaba Tseka
Auray
Loti
Paray
The oral vocabulary test scores are good and relatively consistent between schools except
the one that is slightly lower. This could be due to a number of factors including learner
absence and shifting which impacts the ability of learners to remember English words
without being able to read them.
Bar Chart showing the increase in pupils’ abilities from
May to November 2021 in Control and Pilot Schools
Control Schools
Pilot Schools
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Control Schools
Pilot Schools
These charts show the excellent progress of learners in the Pilot schools across all 3 tests.
Considering the challenges faced in 2021 this is an extremely pleasing result. Learners
enjoyed their learning and teachers built their confidence. The sense of belonging created
by the group of teachers and their Phonics Co-ordinators improved staff morale and
productivity.
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Successes and Challenges
There were a number of factors that contributed to the success of this pilot and the
improvements in the learner’s literacy outcomes. These factors included:

Governmental Support: There has been strong, continuous support from the
Education Department in Thaba Tseka. Two key District Resource Teachers enabled
all monitoring and evaluation activities, training workshops, teacher mentoring and
collaboration with Dolen Cymru.

Detailed Initial Jolly Phonics Training: 2 days of initial teacher training provided
teachers with a thorough introduction to the programme. Culturally relevant
example stories, songs and images were provided where necessary, which ensured
pupils’ maximum engagement in the learning experience. A follow up day long
workshop was delivered to Grade 1 teachers alongside their school-based Phonics
Co-ordinators to maximise collaboration and support moving forward.

Regular Teaching of Jolly Phonics: It is recommended that Jolly Phonics should be
taught at least 3-4 times a week, and ideally daily. In this pilot, the schools that
showed the most progress had teachers that taught Jolly Phonics on a regular basis,
which allowed the pupils to make good progress in their reading and writing ability.

Weekly Zoom Meetings, WhatsApp & Jolly Phonics App for teachers: those with
smart phones were able to access support on the WhatsApp Jolly Phonics groups and
also use the Jolly Phonics Lessons App. Those with the app reported being able to
check pronunciation of sounds was very valuable as well as recalling the tunes for
the Jolly songs. Every weekly Phonics Friday Zoom meeting was accessible to Pilot
teachers along with many other members of the education community engaged in
Jolly Phonics teaching across Lesotho.
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
Principal Support: Principals accompanied their teachers to the Jolly Phonics
trainings. The Principals who stayed regularly involved with the programme being
implemented in their school and supported teachers to timetable Jolly Phonics
achieved higher results.

Learner attendance: Those schools who had higher learner attendance, during the
challenging COVID-19 period, achieved better results as learning was not as
interrupted.
Challenges Experienced in the Pilot:

Overcrowded classrooms and large class sizes: In some of the schools (pilot and
control) classes held upwards of 60 learners in one stream. Although this problem is
often unavoidable in this context, the programme must be sensitive to the number
of children teachers are responsible for and provide support and guidance to the
teachers in using the Jolly Phonics programme with such large pupil groups. Teachers
with large classes commented that Jolly Phonics was so multi-sensory and fun that
they achieved better class control and class engagement in the Jolly Phonics sessions
than they did at any other lesson/subject.

Attendance rates: Schools with lower attendance rates are likely to return lower
test scores. As Jolly Phonics is ideally taught every day, or several times per week,
without regular attendance, learners are likely to be left behind quickly. Again,
although this problem is unavoidable to some extent, the programme should be
sensitive to these circumstances, ensuring regular revision sessions and pupil catch
up sessions where appropriate. This was exacerbated because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
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
Monitoring and evaluation – Leaders were trained to use the Jolly Monitor App on
their tablet devices provided by Dolen Cymru. This was extremely problematic for
some who have low confidence with new platforms. This did impact the reporting
process and new plans for 2022 need to be implemented to ensure this can be used
successfully moving forward.
Conclusion
 Grade 1 Learners in Thaba Tseka Pilot schools can read and write
independently.
 Grade 1 Teachers in Thaba Tseka Pilot have increased their confidence in
teaching English and have improved their approach to child-centred learning.
 The Jolly Phonics approach to literacy teaching has the potential to change the
life-chances for more Basotho children as they become able to access other
subject areas through improved literacy levels, behaviour and attendance.
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The aim of this project was to pilot the Jolly Phonics
programme in the teaching of reading and writing of
English in public Government schools in Thaba Tseka,
Lesotho and assess its impact on early reading outcomes.
Through this evaluation it has been determined that the
synthetic phonics approach of teaching reading and
writing of English, and specifically the Jolly Phonics
programme, can lead to greater progress in the learners
reading and writing ability in English than those pupils not
taught using the programme, where the processes of the
programme are carried out correctly.
In the end-line assessments, assessors found that learners who had been regularly using
Jolly Phonics were more confident and quicker at reading and recognising sounds. They
made more plausible attempts at deciphering unfamiliar
words and were not fazed by pseudo words. The learners
who at base line had shown potential in reading, now
armed with tools to help them blend and segment have
made large improvements. The findings from this study
show that if fidelity to the Jolly Phonics program is shown,
pupils are able to quickly develop their reading skills and
find enjoyment in learning. The similarity between
English and Sesotho sounds also makes Jolly Phonics a
very versatile programme, which will benefit all who are
exposed to it.
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Recommendations and Next Steps
This document has outlined the findings from the Jolly Phonics pilot study in government
schools as part of the Jolly Futures programme. The following are recommendations for the
next steps in a future Jolly Phonics rollout in Lesotho.
To see videos and pictures from the pilot schools please look at our Padlet:
Jolly Phonics Pilot Project Thaba Tseka (padlet.com)
We recommend after you have read this report, we schedule a Zoom meeting with Dolen
Cymru and Jolly Futures for January 2022 to discuss the following:
-
Arrange for our Trainers to run a taster session with resources for Ministry staff
Discuss the possibility of running another 6-month Pilot in another area of Lesotho
(March-September 2022)
Discuss the possibility of training Education Office staff in other parts of Lesotho
Discuss the possibility of country wide roll out in 2023
Sharon Flint
Dolen Cymru Lesotho
Education Officer
sharon@dolencymru.org
We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to improve the English literacy
levels of your learners through Jolly Phonics.
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