Letters and Sounds Phases and Moving to SSP

What is Letters and Sounds?

Letters and Sounds is a phonics teaching guide published by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2007. It set out a six-phase sequence for teaching synthetic phonics, from early listening skills in Nursery to spelling rules in Year 2, and it became the starting point for phonics teaching in many primary schools in England.

Letters and Sounds was guidance rather than a complete programme. Each school had to build its own lessons, resources and assessment around the handbook, and in many schools this led to differences between classes and year groups. In 2021 the DfE said that Letters and Sounds “isn’t a full systematic synthetic phonics programme”, and it encouraged schools to choose a complete, validated programme that provides teaching, resources, decodable books and training in one place.

The six phases of Letters and Sounds

Phase 1: listening, rhythm and rhyme, and hearing the sounds in words, usually in Nursery.
Phase 2: the first letter sounds (s, a, t, p, i, n and onwards), and blending and segmenting simple words.
Phase 3: the rest of the alphabet and the first digraphs and trigraphs, such as sh, ch, ai and igh.
Phase 4: words with adjacent consonants, such as stop and crisp, with no new sounds.
Phase 5: new ways to spell sounds and alternative pronunciations, usually in Year 1.
Phase 6: spelling rules, prefixes and suffixes, usually in Year 2.

Moving from Letters and Sounds to Monster Phonics

Monster Phonics is a complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, validated by the DfE. It teaches all of the content in Letters and Sounds, and every statutory requirement for Reception and Key Stage 1, including the KS1 Spelling Curriculum. Every grapheme-phoneme correspondence and spelling rule is taught in a clear order, with daily lessons, resources, assessment and decodable books ready to use, so every class follows the same sequence.

Because the content is familiar, schools moving from Letters and Sounds find the change easy to make. Staff keep the phonics knowledge they already have, and the Monster Phonics colour coding, characters and multisensory teaching help every child remember each sound.

Results in Monster Phonics schools

Schools consistently report higher engagement and faster progress, and a typical Monster Phonics school achieves an average 92% pass rate in the Phonics Screening Check.

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How Monster Phonics Works

Find out more about Monster Phonics

Does Monster Phonics cover Letters and Sounds and the KS1 spelling curriculum?

Yes. Monster Phonics is a complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, validated by the Department for Education. It covers all of the content in Letters and Sounds (2007), and every statutory requirement for phonics and spelling in Reception and Key Stage 1, including the KS1 spelling curriculum in English Appendix 1. Letters and Sounds was a handbook rather than a full programme, and in 2022 the DfE removed it from its list of validated phonics programmes. Schools moving from Letters and Sounds keep the phonics content they know, now with the daily lessons, resources, decodable books, assessment and training of one complete programme.

Does Monster Phonics have an accompanying decodable books?

Yes, every stage of the programme is accompanied by the phonics reading scheme. The progression follows that of the programme so that children practise the phonics that has already been taught.

What is different about the Monster Phonics SSP?

Like other programmes, Monster Phonics is a full SSP and covers all aspects of knowledge and skills to be taught in Reception, Year 1 and 2. It is more multisensory and engaging than other schemes, meaning that children, teachers and parents love phonics. This can be seen in the improved results, in phonics being visible throughout the school environment and routine, and in 'Monster Phonics Days' where all of the school community celebrate the love of learning phonics.

Letters and Sounds