Tokyo

April McBride originates from the UK, is the Director of an International Preschool in Tokyo and has lived in Japan since 2001. April specialises in teaching young learners, both native and non-native English speakers and also has years of experience supporting older children who are struggling with reading and writing. She finds the Jolly Phonics programme to be fantastic at engaging young learners and also for helping Japanese students with correct spelling and pronunciation. April works mainly with International Schools training their teachers with bespoke workshops and seminars but also enjoys running sessions for parents. As a mother of two bilingual sons she understands the difficulties and joys of developing literacy skills in bilingual learners.

Chuo-Ku, Tokyo

Atsuko Maruyama has been teaching English in Japan since 2007, working with students aged 2 and up, using Jolly Phonics, Jolly Grammar, Jolly English, and Jolly Music into her lessons with outstanding results. She has extensive experience and knowledge in teaching children with dyslexia and other developmental disabilities, helping them overcome difficulties in reading and writing English. As a certified Jolly Phonics and Grammar trainer since 2019, Atsuko has led numerous training and workshop sessions on Jolly Phonics, Jolly Grammar, Jolly Music, and Jolly English for teachers at international, private, and public schools in Japan, as well as for parents and private teachers. Drawing on her many years of teaching experience, she demonstrates how to effectively apply Jolly methods to engage children of all ages and abilities. As an official Jolly distributor, she offers expert advice on maximizing the use of these materials. Her certifications include Reading/Writing Assessor, Child Coaching Advisor, Child Psychology, and Family Therapy Counselor.

Tokyo

David is originally from the UK but has been living and working in Japan since 2001, teaching in both private and public schools. David began to teach with Jolly Phonics in 2014, seeing outstanding results from his students. He finds Jolly Phonics to be a wonderful way not only to teach children literacy, but to also unlock their enthusiasm and motivation for studying English. David would like to share his experiences with Jolly Phonics as a means to teach literacy, not just with other teachers, but with parents looking to get involved in their children's English learning.

Tokyo

Georgette has been an English Language Educator in Japan for over 15 years. Since using the Jolly Phonics program her students have gained the necessary skills to help them become successful readers and writers of English. She would love to help you and your students build a strong phonetics program by using Jolly Phonics.

Japan

Kayoko is a qualified primary, secondary school teacher in Japan, and has worked in schools in Japan and England. She graduated from The University of Nottingham with an MA in Special Needs Education. She has worked with children who need additional support to acquire English or with special needs in schools. As Jolly Phonics is accessible to a wide range of children, Kayoko has seen that it boosts their self-esteem, giving them the confidence to read, write, listen and speak English. She firmly believes Jolly Phonics programme will provide a secure and inspiring foundation for children to learn English in Japan. She visits Japan several times a year, giving training across the country. She has also written Jolly Phonics Books in Japanese.

Tokyo

Makiko has taught Jolly Phonics at elementary schools as a guest teacher in Koganei, Tokyo since 2015. She established Takahashi English and became a teacher at Jolly English Eigo no Oto to Moji no Gakushu Labo, a tutoring school in Koganei, Tokyo in 2016. She teaches Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar to children.  The children became very confident and satisfied with their skills, decoding unknown words and sentences in English by learning the letter-sound correspondences taught in Jolly Phonics. She emphasises the importance of explicitly following the Jolly Phonics methods to help children improve their reading and writing skills.  Their writings become more expressive with spelling knowledge, a deep understanding of parts of speeches, and punctuation rules. She has been accredited as a professional trainer since January 2018 and has been training in person, remotely, or on-site in Japanese or English.  The trainees experience how to make lesson plans for all the sounds so that they can utilise the skills in their classes soon after the training.  They also learn the details about teaching Jolly Grammar.

Takamatsu, Kagawa

I have been teaching English in Japan since 2003, after earning a bachelor's degree from Osaka University of Foreign Studies and obtaining a Type 1 teaching license for high school and junior high school. Before teaching Jolly Phonics in 2016, I was a high school teacher and realized that effective English language acquisition starts with careful reading and writing instruction. Jolly Phonics is particularly suitable for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to children, including those with reading and writing difficulties. Based on my experience, Jolly Phonics stands out for its effectiveness in helping children easily and enjoyably acquire phonics skills through techniques like songs, stories, actions, and practice in blending and segmenting. In my classes, students have achieved remarkable results, such as elementary students successfully tackling high school entrance exam passages and a dyslexic student overcoming challenges to pass the Eiken exam, an important certification in Japan. Despite not being in an English-speaking environment, children acquire reading and writing skills joyfully and confidently pursue their dreams.

Yokohama, Kanagawa

Shino has been working for Yokosuka Gakuin Elementary School in Kanazawa since 2006. She has seen the impact of Jolly Phonics and the outstanding results that their students have achieved learning English with the Jolly Phonics programme. Shino firmly believes that Jolly Phonics is the best solution for learning to read, write and speak in English, so would love to share her experiences with other teachers, so they too can make a difference to their students and schools. 小学校でジョリーフォニックスを使って指導していますが、ジョリーフォニックスを習った子どもたちの変化に、一番驚いたのは我々教員でした。ジョリーフォニックスは日本の子どもたちに必要な指導法です。小学校現場での実践を共有しながら、このプログラムを多くの先生方と一緒に学んでいくことができたら幸いです。トレーニングは日本語で行います。

Hyogo-prefecture

Yoko is a qualified primary, junior high and high school teacher. She has taught phonetics at universities and has been teaching using synthetic phonics for more than forty years at a private elementary school in Japan. She found the Jolly Phonics multi-sensory method effective for little children to learn to read, write and speak English. She has found that using Jolly Phonics, particularly in combination with Jolly Music, has a great effect on her students’ English abilities. Yoko looks forward to helping you and your young learners develop and grow as the only trainer of both Jolly Phonics and Jolly Music in Japan!