Over 126000 children and 7000 teachers
currently use Monster Phonics



Create Excellence with our DfE Validated Scheme

Monster Phonics improves progress. Studies show a 38% increase in spelling accuracy in 5 weeks and a 23-month improvement in reading age over a 5-month period.

Monster Phonics

Who is it for?

The Monster Phonics journey starts in Nursery with our Foundations Programme and continues throughout Reception and KS1 with our School Programme. Monster Phonics improves progress for all learners. This is because colour-coding makes learning phonics more memorable. Our DfE validated scheme is used across the UK and internationally.

Colour-coding

Monster Phonics is easier to learn and remember. Monster Phonics helps children to learn and recall spellings by using colour. Each sound and colour is also represented by a monster that makes that sound (a sound cue). This brings phonics to life and makes Monster Phonics highly engaging. Scroll down and click on a monster to find out more.

Training for Your School

Our training packages include our online training series, consisting of 26 modules over 3 levels of training, as well as 4 training sessions with one of our expert trainers. Training assessment ensures that teaching staff complete the training having secured extensive knowledge in all aspects of the teaching of phonics and reading. Every school has access to an assigned trainer, whose purpose is to ensure school fidelity to the programme, successful implementation for all relevant staff, and improvement in overall phonics knowledge and teaching. 

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Learn more about our programmes

School Programme
Foundations Programme

Meet the Monsters

Click on a Monster to see the Colour-Coded Graphemes

  • Green Froggy Angry Red A
    X
    Angry Red A

    Angry Red A

    a, a-e, ay, ai, ei, eigh, ea, ey

    There are 8 graphemes that make the long A sound. We colour them red.
    Angry Red A is a memory cue for the long A sound because he makes this sound.

    Angry Red A is a kind but crazy monster. He sometimes breaks objects without thinking. He loves driving his racing car and has a monster taxi service. On Fridays, his cave becomes the Rave Cave for the weekly monster disco.
  • Green Froggy Green Froggy
    X
    Green Froggy

    Green Froggy

    e, y, ee, ea, ie, ey, ei, i, e-e, i-e

    There are 9 graphemes that make the long E sound. We colour them green.
    Green Froggy is a memory cue for the long E sound because she makes this sound.

    ‘Green Froggy is happy to dr eam under the tree’
    ‘Green Froggy is a teacher at the teapot school house. She loves to drink tea and coffee and always looks forward to the weekend’
  • Green Froggy Yellow I
    X
    Yellow I

    Yellow I

    i, i-e, y, igh, ie, y-e

    There are 5 graphemes that make the long I sound. We colour them yellow.
    The Yellow I monster is a memory cue for the long I sound because he makes this sound.

    Yellow I watches over the other monsters from his lighthouse. When there is trouble the lighthouse blinks and he jumps into action. Yellow I is a spy who goes on secret missions and loves gadgets like iPads and iPhones. He can fly when he wears his secret cloak.
  • Green Froggy Miss Oh No
    X
    Miss Oh No

    Miss Oh No

    o, o-e, oa, ow, oe

    There are 5 graphemes that make the long O sound. We colour them pink.
    Miss Oh No is a memory cue for the long O sound because she says ‘Oh No!’ when she bumps into things.

    Miss Oh No loves to dance more than anything else in the world. She is a disco dance teacher giving lessons after school to all the monsters. She is enthusiastic but sometimes lacks coordination! Miss Oh No lives inside a pink-coated doughnut-shaped house.
  • Green Froggy U-Hoo
    X
    U-Hoo

    U-Hoo

    u, u-e, ew, ue, eu

    There are 5 graphemes that make the long U sound. We colour them purple.
    U-Hoo is a memory cue for the long U sound because he makes this sound.

    U-Hoo lives in the outer universe. He calls ‘Yoo-hoo!’ and waves his U-shaped arms to his friends below him. He visits Monster Phonics Land by sliding down a purple tube that magically appears. U-hoo is a musician, playing the drums in the monsters band.
  • Green Froggy Cool Blue
    X
    Cool Blue

    Cool Blue

    u, o, u-e, oo, ew, ue, ou, ui, o-e, eu

    There are 10 graphemes that make the long oo sound. We colour them blue.
    Cool Blue is a memory cue for the long O sound because he makes this sound.

    Cool Blue is a cool DJ and he also looks after the zoo. He adores animals especially kangaroos and cockatoos. Cool Blue lives in a blue moon house. His favourite DJ event is the Friday Monsters Disco. He also sings the ‘Ooh’ vocals in the monsters’ band.
  • Green Froggy Brown Owl
    X
    Brown Owl

    Brown Owl

    ow, ou

    There are 2 graphemes that make the ow sound. We colour them brown.
    Brown Owl is a memory cue for the ow sound.

    Brown Owl is a Mountain Rescue Owl. She lives in a brown treehouse at the top of Monster Mountain with Bounder, her St Bernard. If a monster is lost, she’ll save them. She loves comics and talks like a comic book… POW! WOW! OW! She excels at school.
  • Green Froggy Ghosts
    X
    Ghosts

    Ghosts

    The sound cue for silent letters is “Put your fingers to your lips. Ghost letters make no sound.” We colour them white. The ghosts help children to remember to write these letters in words, even though they have no sound.

    The ghosts enjoy hiding and jumping out to scare the monsters. They make no sound! This is great for pretending that they are not there. They live in Tricky Witch’s house and help to look after the Black Cats. They feed them and play chase games.
  • Green Froggy Tricky Witch
    X
    Tricky Witch

    Tricky Witch

    Tricky letters show no grapheme-phoneme correspondence. They make a different sound to the one that has been taught. We colour them gold. For example, the ‘a’ in ‘want’ makes an ‘o’ sound. For Tricky letters, the cue is “Tricky Witch has cast a spell to change the sounds you know so well. Can I catch you out”?

    Tricky Witch is naughty and casts ‘tricky’ spells in Monster Phonics Land often causing chaos. She lives in the haunted house with the ghosts and the black cats. Her nieces, the Little Witches come to visit. Tricky Witch loves jewellery and gold bling!
  • Green Froggy The Black Cats
    X
    The Black Cats

    The Black Cats

    The black cats make the phonetic sounds. These are the 26 letters of the alphabetic, 9 consonant digraphs and or and ur. They do not need a sound cue as they are phonetic.

    The black cats are happy and playful. They like to line up in a row to make phonetic words. The cats don’t understand Tricky Witch’s magic or how the ghosts can disappear but they are learning how to read simple words using their letter sounds.
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Monster Phonics combines a carefully-structured teaching and learning programme with an engaging reading scheme. A strong feature of the programme is the high-quality core materials for teachers and parents.

Professor David Waugh, Durham University


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Monster Phonics provides free Demos for both schools and parents. Check our upcoming demo sessions below and book your place.

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Monster Phonics in School

School Programme

Monster Phonics in Nursery

Foundations Programme

Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence as the First and Foremost Approach

Monster Phonics uses grapheme-phoneme correspondence as the first and foremost approach. Teaching is supported by using colour and monster sound cues to make the grapheme-phoneme correspondence explicit and easier to learn. Directly linking each grapheme and sounds within words makes learning easier and fun. Once a grapheme has been taught, the colour is removed. Not only does this accelerates the learning of phonics, high-frequency words, including common exception words, are also easier to learn. x

Meet the Monsters

Frequently Asked Questions

Monster Phonics is a highly-engaging, structured, synthetic phonics programme. It accelerates learning by allowing children to learn new graphemes by using monsters to group graphemes for recall and to provide an easy and fun memory cue for children. It also uses colour-coding to highlight the grapheme when teaching a new grapheme. Once taught and secure, the colour is removed. Multisensory focused teaching improves learning. Children love Monster Phonics. The high engagement and interest created by the programme further supports learning.
Yes, you can. We recommend all the teachers to sign up for the 15 days free trial to access the planning and resources without any commitments.
Yes, Monster Phonics is used in international schools across the world. Our scheme supports international learners more than others because it teaches pronunciation alongside spelling. It also uses pictorial cues which are recognised cross-culturally. Our eBooks and training are online and we deliver all resources internationally. We are happy to connect you with other schools overseas who are using the programme.
Yes, Monster Phonics is listed as a DfE validated programme.
Yes, lesson plans and resources are available for every grapheme and spelling rule taught in Reception and the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum.
The graphemes are taught in the same order as letters and sounds in Reception. This order of teaching maximises opportunities for children to read and write words right from the start when learning phonics. The High Frequency Words and Common Exception Words follow a slightly different order so that they meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and to ensure that children have learnt all the first 100 HFWs and the next 200 HFWs by the end of Y2
Your Monster Phonics membership will give all your teaching staff access to the planning, daily lessons, assessments, and intervention resources covering Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 phonics teaching.
Yes, Monster Phonics is easy to introduce at any point in the school year. View our Teaching Manual to see the Monster Phonics Progression Map. This shows the order of teaching and where to start in the Monster Phonics programme. The consistent planning makes it easy to implement improving results straight away.
Yes, Monster Phonics is suitable for SEN schools and SEN units within mainstream schools. Our innovative and highly advanced multisensory approach supports SEN children learning phonics in a memorable, fun and engage way.
Yes, Monster Phonics is suitable for children who speak English is a second language. Our unique approach helps children to learn to read and write words containing the difficult long vowels, silent letters and tricky words that frequently cause problems for children learning to read and write in English. It also provides more support with pronunciation. This is particularly beneficial for EAL learners
We have our own reading scheme which consists of 130 decodable books which are aligned to the Monster Phonics Programme.