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Kingsley Community Primary School

Results Overview

40% Overall Increase Y1
7% Overview Increase Y2

Why did we move to Monster Phonics?

The main reason for switching to MP was because in the past there had been lots of dipping in and out of different schemes/resources and it didn’t feel streamlined and consistent. It is now clear that we are a Monster Phonics school and our approach to teaching phonics is streamlined and consistent with all staff using the same resources and a shared approach to teaching and learning (including vocabulary, actions and spelling strategies)
There is now a ‘buzz’ about it. Lowest 20% are targeted through intervention and are making progress. They are engaged and focused.

Impact on Results

Since Monster Phonics has been introduced, the school’s phonics and reading scores significantly improved to become the highest in the school’s history. The parental engagement increased to the greatest it had ever been. This is especially beneficial as 83% of the school community speak English as a second language and pupil transition is high. Free school meals are higher than average at 54%. The high impact on results is shown below.

Y1

Percentage pass rate
(including lockdown)

23%September 2020

63%July 2021

40%Overall Increase

Y2

Percentage pass rate
(including lockdown)

90%May 2021

97%July 2021

7%Overview Increase

Impact on Teaching

There is now a ‘buzz’ about phonics. Staff love it!
The lowest 20% are targeted through intervention and are making progress. They are engaged and focused.
Monster Phonics has allowed parents to have a ‘way in’ as it provides accessibility to phonics with the monsters acting as sound cues and visual prompts. We like that there is lots of accessible resources to send home that parents can use.
The children bring in phonics work they have done at home and we have found that it is now really easy to bring phonics into other areas of the curriculum.
The children love it! They get so excited when they see a monster pop up somewhere or when they see a monster diagraph/trigraph in a book that isn’t colour coded.
The reading books for Phase 2 are good as they have phonetically decodable text for children to read and then text for adults to read to move the story on so children can develop comprehension and understanding too but also to keep the children engaged in reading as previously we found that children would be disengaged with books as they viewed them as ‘boring’.
Year 3 children working below age-related expectations also enjoy the fully decodable year 1 books as the amount of text feels age-appropriate and challenging for them.

Ease of planning/ delivering

All the planning is done for you and is easy to use and follow. It follows the 4 -part phonics structure.
What I love about the planning is that it is really creative and multisensory. It also incorporates the spelling curriculum and has a heavy focus on segmenting/blending
Teachers/LSA’s just need to download the resources before the lessons- It’s great for new to key stage teachers and those not confident with phonics
Staff love it! At first, there was a lot of resistance when I first brought it in as staff were scared of trying something new but the feedback has been great, especially from our new to Key Stage year 2 teachers who have felt confident delivering phonics with the planning and assessment resources. The plans are also easy to adapt if you so wish.

Suitability from Nursery to Year 2 and beyond

We use it from Nursery to Year 3 and the reports from Nursery/Year 3 teachers is that children love it.
I have observed Year 3 and was really pleased with what I saw and how engaged they are with the monsters. Intervention teacher reports rapid progress and high engagement.
We are rolling it out to the whole school in September and KS2 LSA’s have been trained in using it to support lowest 20% of learners and newly arrived EAL.

Parental engagement

MP have allowed parents to have a ‘way in’ as it provides accessibility to phonics with the monsters acting as sound cues and visual prompts.
Some of our parents have engaged with the online resources and our families use monster phonics e-books.
We like that there is lots of accessible resources to send home that parents can use.

Individual Stories

Year 1 child who was previously disengaged and very passive. She had little English. She is now fully engaged with the programme and loves it. She brings her own handmade flashcards in and talks about the monsters. She is starting to write and engage in lessons. Loves Tricky Witch! MP has been a way in for her.

Reception – specific child who struggled with most things in school but has picked phonics really well (GPC recognition but still working on blending) This is a big thing for him and he loves the monsters and knows all the actions. Can also write each sound when asked

Year 2 Teacher never taught Key Stage 1 and had no previous Phonics Training – loves the programme and says that she wouldn’t have been able to teach it without it. She described feeling ‘overwhelmed’ by the thought of phonics and had little to no subject knowledge-the planning has helped her feel confident in teaching phonics.

Words by teachers at Kingsley Community Primary School.

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