Hello! I’m Michelle, and I created Toolbox Phonics whilst working as a teacher.

When I first started teaching, games and multi-sensory activities were the main way phonics was taught. We sang songs, linked letters to characters, and used playful activities and games to practise and apply new sounds in words and sentences.

Delivering phonics through games worked – and for so many reasons: engagement, brain development, readiness and repetition. But, to put it most simply, games work because they’re fun. Things that are fun keep children’s attention, and when you have a child’s attention, you can add learning in. It’s really quite simple when you think about it.

Over the years, I tested all the usual games, along with plenty of more unusual and creative ones. Gradually, I found the games that worked best – the ones that provided the richest opportunities for learning, were simple to play, quick to prepare, and maximised the number of children who could get involved.

To put it plainly, some games are simply too time-consuming to prepare. With phonics being taught every day and new sounds introduced each week, anything too complicated rarely got repeated. Other games only engaged one child at a time, or they didn’t develop phonics skills effectively enough. Over time, those games naturally fell by the wayside, leaving me with a collection of the most effective, engaging and time-efficient games that I found myself returning to again and again.

I then moved to the UAE to teach in British curriculum schools overseas. Around the same time, schools in England were required by the government to adopt a single Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme and teach it with fidelity. Because I had moved overseas, I narrowly avoided this, and I continued teaching using the previous Letters and Sounds approach, which gave me the freedom to deliver phonics in ways that best matched my pupils’ needs and interests.

And so my practice continued to develop. I kept refining the games I’d been using throughout my career and, after more than a decade in the profession, I realised I had built a system that could help other teachers too. So that’s exactly what I set out to do.

I began organising my games across the phonics phases, following the same letter progression as Letters and Sounds. I carefully mapped everything week by week and phase by phase, ensuring the right balance of engagement, learning and progression.

I thought it would take me a few months to organise everything.

In reality, it took me years.

I wanted to create something that genuinely worked for teachers and children alike, so these became my priorities:

Fun and engagement

This was always my number one priority. I chose the games that children genuinely enjoy playing because engaged children are far more likely to stay focused and learn.

Curriculum coverage

I ensured every statutory sound, spelling rule and phonics skill within the EYFS and KS1 curriculum was covered.

Learning and progression

Every game has a purpose. Skills build on one another, creating a clear roadmap through the phonics phases.

Cognitive load

It was important that the games remained simple, so children weren’t trying to learn a brand-new game and brand-new phonics at the same time.

Where possible, I use traditional childhood games that teachers and children already know. Any new games are introduced in the earlier phases, usually as revisit activities, before being repeated later with more complex words and spellings. Nothing is accidental in Toolbox Phonics.

Time efficiency

The teacher in me knew one of the biggest reasons phonics often falls back on flashcards, worksheets and online games is because preparation takes so much time alongside an already demanding workload.

That’s why I designed the website to be incredibly organised, with everything needed for a lesson grouped together so you can quickly find and print the resources you need.

The resources themselves are also designed to save time. They’re simple, with straight edges that can be printed and cut out in minutes – no intricate designs that take forever to prepare or laminate.

Finally, every lesson plan clearly tells you exactly which physical resources you’ll need to bring the games to life, and I made sure they’re things you’ll already have in your classroom or can easily substitute.

Home educators and tutors too

Finally, I wanted every game to work just as well in a one-to-one setting as it does in the classroom. That’s why I created dedicated 1:1 lesson plans across the entire programme, making it easy for parents, tutors and home educators to adapt each game for one child while keeping the same level of fun and engagement.

I’ve poured my own classroom experience, creativity and dedication into creating a system that supports both teachers and children.

My mission is simple: to bring fun back into phonics.

Toolbox Phonics. We plan it. You play it.