to think nursery should know about Jolly Phonics?

[auntieem]

My dd is 3.5years and will start nursery school in September. At present she attends a nursery for children aged 2.5 to 5 years, split into two rooms. My dd says she is bored and has asked to learn her letters at nursery,she already knows all her sounds. I have spoken to the nursery manager about this but the response was less than enthusiastic and she looked completely blank when I said that Letterland had been superseeded by Jolly Phonics. She knew absolutely nothing about it and wasn't interested. AIBU to be annoyed?

Letterlans will soon be superseeded the take up of the phonics system in some areas appears to be quicker than others, I think it's atop down government objective not a school level decision

Sorry just got the impression that phonics in general was all abit alien I stand corrected! [WINK]

my dd2 didnt enjoy her nursery much and really enjoyed learnign to read -s he would much rather have been writing and learning leatters than playing [yes weird kid]

but I did it with her at home.

Aaaaargh, superceded, superceded, superceded.

Would be a bit at a reception class not adopting a predominantly synthetic phonics approach and I would ask them why they are flying in the face of government research recommendations being adopted across the country, if I went to look round and saw a predominance of letterland stuff in the classroom.

Nursery is different to pre-school so if the nursery does not have a pre-school section then perhaps they can take a different view.

From what I discovered from in ds's pre-school days, jolly phonics was adopted after his pre-school researched the methods being adopted by local schools which most of the children eventually attended. It was offered as part of a 20 minute, sit in a circle and focus, type section of the day, preceded and followed by lots of lovely dressing up and painting, playing with friends and making stuff from cardboard, wool, oodles of glitter & way too much glue, type activities. ds became a whizz at the basic 26 phonic sounds and could recognise lots of mundane words like days of the week, and months of the year plus numbers up to about 100 as he was full-time and got a daily dose unlike some children who attended for say three half days a week. Although he didn't read out loud before he started school I suspect he then just needed the reception class environment as it all fell into place in a matter of weeks last September.

One of the functions of the pre-school environment and indeed why this is subsidised for all pre-school age(or over 3 years old) children is that starting to practice focusing on the demonstration from a lead adult to pick up a skill or listening to a short story in a group without wandering off to do something else is a stepping stone to easing the transition from not being in school to having to attend school each day. For some children this will be as much as they take on board however, IMHO a good pre-school will also let those capable of a bit more take on board some letter work, learning their sounds and if pen control is good enough, copying them down and practising them. Ds loved doing this and I do not believe I would have acted in his best interests to deny him access to letters/words and numbers or have to fulfil his preference for these activities at home when it could be so easily accomodated by the pre-school.

It's not about denying them their childhood years of playing, its about meeting the individual child's needs in the last 2 years before they start school and making the transition to school as easy as possible.

So to sum up no, maybe a nursery doesn't need to use Jolly Phonics although I'm a bit shocked that they hadn't heard of it. However if they have a pre-school section I'd be a lot more worried about their ability to prepare your child for a smooth transition to school be that using JP or any other method.

Jolly Phonics has not been superseded, nor has Letterland. Both are commercial programmes, and as other posters have said, it's the school's choice which they use. Jolly Phonics is a very good programme; the government's Letters and Sounds programme has not superseded it, but is closely modelled on it. They are all options (though I would rate Letterland below the others).

OP - YANBU in my view. I'm surprised that the nursery would be so ill-informed (though I agree that it's not their job to teach children to read).

There is no question of OP's DD being 'force-fed' phonics - she's obviously very keen. I'm all for children learning through play, but if a child is eager to read then why deny her?

The OED gives the word as 'supersede'.

Prehaps the nursery is concentration on improving children's speech, understanding of the world and social skills. I think its OK if the nursery decides not to teach reading, but if they are going to teach reading then it should be done properly or not at all.

Is not essential for three and half year olds to be taught to read. Most children pick up the basics of reading very quickly if they are taught with a good synthetic phonics programme like Jolly phonics at four or five. However if your daughter is interested it won't hurt her to teach her.

If you want your child to do Jolly phonics then why don't you teach her yourself. Its very easy to use and only requires 10 minutes a day.

I suggest you get the Jolly Phonics Handbook, finger phonics books, the jolly phonics DVD and the Jolly jingles CD. Gently teach her the letter sounds. When she knows all the letter sounds then you can use the word lists in the Jolly phonics Teacher's hand book to teach her how to blend and segment the letter sounds. When she can blend you could get her some decodable readers to practice her skills.