Ingrid Connors – The Early Years: The Roarsome Story Of How Monster Phonics Began
By Nikki Wordsmith
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Up until 5 years ago, Ingrid Connors was still working out her award-winning Monster Phonics reading scheme on her kitchen table.
With magnetic modesty, Ingrid is keen to emphasise that it is her team, now numbering 12, – and the merits of the reading programme itself – that have done all the hard work.
Ingrid Connors says proudly, one of the many X-factors that Monster Phonics has, is its inclusivity of all children learning to spell, read and write.
And when Ingrid says ‘all’ she means all.
‘Initially when I looked at growing schools,’ she said, ‘I looked at disadvantaged areas because I knew it was there I could make the greatest impact.
‘Also my brother got really scarred from being put in a special needs class and my own children are dyslexic.
‘I wanted a reading system where no child gets left behind and unlocks the potential in every child.’
With more than 142,000 children and 11,000 teachers currently using the Department for Education validated scheme and counting, it is fair to say, the numbers and letters are starting to speak for themselves.
In 2023, the Phonics Screening Check pass rate increased by up to 43% with an average 13% increase in the first year of using Monster Phonics
‘It is a passion,’ she tells me on a hectic Monday afternoon over Microsoft Teams, ‘all people in education, regardless of approach, are trying to do the same thing – help children learn better.
‘I just wanted to create a reading system which helps unlock the reading potential in every child.’
Another X-factor about why Monster Phonics’ emerging success might be found in a back-handed compliment comment dished out to Ingrid while she was training to be a teacher.
This person briskly summed up her way of teaching by saying, ‘You know the thing about you Ingrid, is that you think like a child!’
Whether the comment was intended as a compliment or not, Ingrid sensibly walked away thinking, You know that’s not a bad thing, considering the profession I am in.
Today upon further reflection, she says, ‘I do think that is what good teachers do, we listen, we learn, we go back to the classroom and see what makes things easy for the children.
‘That is our job.
‘All people in education, regardless of approach, are trying to do the same thing – help children learn better.’
First impressions of Ingrid Connors read like a softer cuddlier version of JK Rowling
Intelligent yet shy, Ingrid is slowly starting to open up about her personal story.
She believes it was her difficult personal experiences that have become the main motivator to make an even educational playing field for all children.
‘It was Thatcher’s Britain, we lived in a lovely farmhouse, in the north of England.
‘My mother was an English second language speaker – her first being German. Some of my siblings were dyslexic.
‘One brother was put into a special needs class, and a different English class for the whole of his secondary education. He was really scarred by that’
On the surface her home life was, ‘a typical situation where a parent leaves’ but in a ‘very unusual situation’.
Her changing circumstances engulfed her in shame.
She says, ‘Mum went to work in a kitchen everyday so no Mum or Dad at home.
‘I remember Mum used to bring food home from work and we used to cut it into four.
‘We were hungry a lot of the time, and no one wanted to talk about it because…’
Like in many moments in our conversation Ingrid’s sentences start to jump about and overlap each other. Her voice trails off…
‘I’ll never forget this,’ she eventually says, ‘and wish I never knew it, but my Dad’s solicitor read out a note from my head teacher at primary school.
‘He said out of the four children, none of us would continue in education past the age of 16.
‘That view never left me.’
The multi-sensory phonics system that is hoping to take-over the world
Ingrid’s varied and relevant work here in the Great Britain and internationally, are some of the key stages in her life where she finds herself today – to be a pioneering educator worldwide.
She has worked as an audiological scientist in the NHS, a dyslexia specialist teacher at Harrow International School in Bangkok Thailand, and spent four years as a SEND teacher at The Royal Masonic School for Girls in Hertfordshire.
All of this professional work experience, she says synthesised with her personal family life story into the making of Monster Phonics.
In 2011, Thailand had the worst floods in fifty years which meant Ingrid’s family needed to be evacuated.
She says, ‘So the story goes, we’re flying back, and I’ve got my three-year-old, my six-year-old and my eight-year-old, on my knee and suddenly the monsters and stories started to come alive through that situation.
‘I started sketching out the monsters and characters on the plane. Angry Red A was the first character, then two more.
‘Later on, the first story I did, was the little black cats, they set off on an adventure in a boat, but they are actually in a sink.’
Now after living with the monsters for more than ten years “almost as friends”, the reading scheme has its own unique story-telling, sensory and visual cues structure:
- 10 colourful monsters to touch
- 44 sounds (phonemes)
- 120 letter combinations (graphemes)
Meet all the monsters in the Monster Song
Ingrid Connors: A True Teacher On A Genuine Mission To Help All Children Read Worldwide
One of the many paradoxes of life and learning is that we live it and learn it forwards and understand it backwards.
And so it was for me, dear reader.
Slowly I was beginning to learn why out of the 45 Department of Education phonics systems that Primary School Phonics Lead teachers have to chose from: Monster Phonics has a few extra super powers including a multi-sensory child led approach at the heart of its learning.
And so it was, after a few months of arriving in Monster Phonics Land, the Monster Phonics story began to fall into place when I saw Ingrid Connors in action.
World Book Day Phonics Webinar
On World Book Day this year I tuned in to watch a live Monster Phonics webinar.
Ingrid Connors was talking to hundreds of children in classrooms who had logged in to learn more about Monster Phonics.
‘When I was a little girl there was no one like me in storybooks,’ Ingrid says in her childlike cheery voice as this picture of her appeared on the screen.
‘I have something called dyspraxia which means I don’t always see where I am in space and it means my hand-writing is messy and all over the place.
‘This is why my favourite monster is Miss Oh No because she always bumps into things and I bump into lots of things.
‘I want people to see there are children like me and feel valued and be able to identify themselves.’
Another super power Monster Phonics has is Ingrid Connors herself.
She is quick to make sure her team are put first and foremost at the helm of Monster Phonics’s burgeoning success.
After a few seconds of watching her is it clear she is a true teacher.
And to reclaim that early observation of young Ingrid Connors in teacher training – one that thinks like a child.
It made me smile a knowing smile to see this written in bold font not once but twice on a slide in the webinar.
All of this magic and hardwork has blended together to give her a unique perspective on what truly sparks children’s imaginations to help them read.
This is exemplified in the monster called called Tricky Witch.
Ingrid Connors says in the world of teaching the gold metallic pen is up there.
‘You can hold it up in front of the class and the whole room goes Woahhh!
‘This is why Tricky Witch is all blinged up with a gold necklace, ring and a gold wand. Her words, the Tricky Words, are the hardest to learn.
‘By associating these things, children then know then that the hardest work gets the best reward.’
Monster Phonics is starting to get some good results that show more children read, more children read better and more children read quicker with their system.
And it is on that hard-working sparkly note where we shall leave it for today children.
Class you are free to go!
Read On Dear Reader, Read On…
Part Two Coming Soon… ‘Sometimes the words get in the way,’ says Ingrid Connors.
Sign up below. Don’t miss the next blog which goes into more depth about what phonics is and how children learn to read best.
If you want to know more about Monster Phonics:
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