Give your team a shared approach to teaching phonics. Training is planned around your learners, existing curriculum and staff experience, with demonstrations drawn from classroom practice.
Fees & booking
Check the JSS bookstore for available listings. School training, student lessons and speaking engagements are quoted according to content, duration, group size and location. If you cannot find a relevant listing, please contact us.
For your students. For your team. For your community.
An example of a student lesson in a school setting.
STUDENT LESSONS AT YOUR SCHOOL
Phonics lessons for students at your school
Atsuko visits your school to teach Jolly Phonics directly to students. Drawing on classroom experience, including lessons at a private secondary school, she plans around prior learning and current reading and writing skills as well as age.
Example: a three-day intensive programme
Day 1Connect letters and sounds
Day 2Practise blending and segmenting
Day 3Apply taught sounds to reading and writing
This is an illustrative sequence, adjusted to lesson time and prior learning. It does not promise mastery of all 42 sounds or a particular outcome in three days.
A briefing or workshop for your teachers can follow the student lessons, connecting the intensive programme with everyday classroom practice.
Explore letter sounds, actions and multisensory demonstrations.
Build reading & writing
Practise blending, segmenting and letter formation, then plan the next teaching steps.
Respond to your learners
Discuss pacing, materials and checks for understanding in your teaching context.
Topics are selected to suit the workshop or agreed training scope. Jolly Literacy training can also be discussed.
FROM REAL CLASSROOMS
Training informed by real lessons.
Selected lessons at a private secondary school in Japan. Experience of combining actions, print and materials in front of learners provides a practical foundation for Atsuko’s Jolly Phonics teacher training.
A selected Jolly Phonics lesson at a private secondary school in Japan, using a hand action to illustrate a sound. Explanations and resources are adapted to learners’ ages and experience.
The background of literacy instruction and systematic phonics
The 42 letter sounds, actions and letter–sound relationships
The five basic skills of Jolly Phonics
Planning a lesson and using activities at home or in class
Alternative vowel spellings and magic-e
Moving from phonics to reading small books
Jolly Literacy
Reviewing Jolly Phonics and alternative vowel spellings
The curriculum and teaching materials
Parts of speech, actions and colour coding
Activities for home and classroom use
Practising dictation and independent writing
OFFICIAL TRAINING · EVERYDAY PRACTICE
Jolly Phonics & Jolly Literacy Official Trainer
Our Jolly Phonics and Jolly Literacy trainers are experienced teaching professionals who use these resources in everyday lessons. Drawing on more than ten years of teaching, we share classroom practice and learning through training for teachers, parents and students, supporting children’s English reading and writing in Japan. Our trainers are recognised and approved by Jolly Learning in the UK.
ATSUKO MARUYAMA · PROFILE
Opening up possibilities through learning.
In the classroom since 2007.
After ten years in the United States, Atsuko Maruyama (Maru) founded I’s English School in Tokyo in 2007. She teaches learners from age two to adulthood, using Jolly Phonics, Jolly Literacy and Jolly English in her own classrooms. Her teaching connects English with expressing ideas and taking action, with activities suited to each learner’s age and experience.
Official training grounded in daily teaching.
As a Jolly Phonics & Jolly Literacy Official Trainer, Atsuko delivers teacher training in English and Japanese. More than ten years of teaching inform her demonstrations of letter–sound relationships, blending, spelling and writing. Sessions connect the approach with Japanese-speaking learners’ needs, original activities and practical checks for understanding.
Connecting materials and teaching since 2015.
Atsuko established Jolly Study Square in 2015 as an official distributor of Jolly Phonics materials. Her roles in distribution and teaching connect resource selection with classroom use. Discuss levels, purposes, budgets and combinations of materials with someone who also understands how to teach with them.
A responsive approach to literacy difficulties.
Atsuko teaches children with dyslexia and other developmental or learning needs, within and beyond her own school. She considers where each learner needs support and adapts explanations, practice and materials. Her work includes talks for schools and educational organisations, NPO EDGE and libraries, sharing practical approaches to English literacy support.
Bringing Japanese classroom experience to international conversations.
Over many years, Atsuko has built relationships with Sue Lloyd, Sara Wernham, founder Chris Jolly and Jolly Learning. At trainers’ conferences and other exchanges, she has shared perspectives on English education in Japan, progress and challenges in her own school, and experience from training international-school teachers. This is a two-way exchange: learning from international practice and contributing Japanese classroom experience.
Atsuko Maruyama is a Jolly Phonics & Jolly Literacy Official Trainer and runs JSS as an official distributor. Her experience connects resource information with what happens in a classroom or at home.
Selected demonstrations from Atsuko Maruyama’s talks and training, showing teaching materials and explanations in practice.
See teaching materials in action.
Explore practical ways to bring puppets and other teaching materials into a lesson.
Follow the movement, step by step.
Demonstrations make movements, such as those used in letter formation, easier to follow.
Make sounds and letters visible.
A training example showing how letters and magnets can help explain the relationship between sounds and writing.
TEACHER TRAINING · IN PRACTICE
Making sounds and letters visible.
A selected example of training led by Atsuko Maruyama. Board work and practical demonstrations explore the relationship between English sounds and letters, making it easier to see how explanations can support children’s understanding.
Jolly Phonics training at Miyagi University of EducationExploring the relationship between English sounds and letters through board work and demonstrations.
Follow-up support
For teachers and schools that have trained with JSS, lesson observation and further training can be discussed. Availability, scope and fees are agreed separately.
What happens after you enquire?
Tell us your learner ages, setting, preferred language and group size. We will discuss the content and confirm dates, fees and any travel arrangements before you book.
