Xenly for schools and tuition centres: how it works

This guide is for head teachers, English leads, Year 1 teachers and tuition centre managers. It explains how Xenly works with a group of children, what staff see, how we look after children’s data and how a pilot works. Our For schools page has the short version.

What Xenly is

Xenly is phonics practice for children in Year 1, and for older children who need to catch up. Children read alien words aloud, and each sound they read grows a part of a creature. The creatures live on the child’s own planet. The practice follows the Letters and Sounds phases in eight levels, so it sits alongside your phonics programme rather than replacing it. Our guide to the phonics phases shows how the levels match.

Two ways to practise

Read together

A grown-up sits with a child. The child reads a creature’s name, an alien word, aloud. The grown-up taps any sound that needed a second go, much like marking the Phonics Screening Check. Each sound read correctly grows one part of the creature. A sound that needed a second go stays see-through, so the grown-up can see the gap at a glance.

This is the only way a new creature grows. It needs a grown-up, because Xenly does not listen to or record children.

Play on my own

Children can also practise alone with short listening games that mark themselves. Xenly plays a sound or a word, and the child taps the answer. Solo play strengthens listening and recognition, wakes sleepy creatures and earns sound stars. It never grows a new creature, and it only uses sounds from levels the child has reached. A daily limit keeps it short.

Many settings use solo play for independent tasks, and read-together practice in small groups with a teaching assistant or tutor.

How the engine chooses words

Xenly tracks how secure each sound is for each child. It makes new alien words from the sounds a child finds hardest, and brings back sounds that are due for review. When a sound is due, the creatures made from it get sleepy on the child’s planet, and reading their names wakes them up.

Seats, classes and tutors

• An organisation account holds all your children, with one seat for each child.
• Classes group children and have a tutor.
• Tutors see only the children in their own classes. Owners and admins see everyone.
• Parents can be invited to follow their own child at home, and see only that child.

What staff see

• A class view with each child’s first name, level and sleepy creatures.
• A levels list you can download, with first name, class, level and phase.
• For each child, the sounds that needed a second go recently, and their Big Migration results.

Children never see scores, percentages or rankings. The Big Migration, a 40-word practice run of the check, ends in a celebration for the child. The score is for staff and parents only.

No leaderboards

Xenly never compares children. There are no leaderboards, no class rankings and no “top readers”. Each child has their own planet and grows at their own pace. We believe comparison hurts the children who most need confidence.

Children’s data and the Children’s Code

Xenly is built to follow the ICO’s Age Appropriate Design Code, known as the Children’s Code. In practice, that means:

• Data minimisation: we keep a first name or nickname, a school year and the learning. No surnames, dates of birth, photos or addresses.
• No audio: nothing a child says is ever recorded or uploaded.
• No profiling for adverts: there are no adverts, no tracking and no analytics scripts.
• Private by default: children have no login, no chat and no way to contact anyone.
• No nudges: nothing is designed to keep children on the screen longer.

Data is hosted in the EU. Our privacy notice explains what we keep and why, and we can share more detail for your data protection lead.

Seats and price

Organisations pay for a seat for each child, for a year, by invoice. Prices are between £15 and £25 a child a year, depending on how many children join. The minimum is 20 children. We agree the details with each school or tuition centre. Family plans are on our pricing page.

How a pilot works

1. A short call. We talk about your setting, your phonics programme and what you want to see.
2. One class, one term. We set up your account, a class and seats, and invite your staff.
3. A check-in halfway. We look at how it is going with you and adjust anything that is not working.
4. A decision together. At the end of the term, you decide whether to carry on.

To start, write to support@xenly.co.uk and tell us about your setting.

What Xenly does, and what it doesn’t

Xenly gives children short, calm practice of the skill the Phonics Screening Check looks at, and gives staff a clear view of which sounds need work.

Xenly does not teach new sounds for the first time, and it is not a replacement for your phonics programme or for teaching. It is not an assessment, and a Big Migration result is not a prediction of the real check. Our guide to the Phonics Screening Check explains the check for parents.

Questions schools ask

Does it work with our phonics programme?

Xenly follows the Letters and Sounds phases, which cover the same sounds as every DfE-approved programme by the end of Year 1. The order may differ slightly.

Do children need headphones?

For solo play, headphones help in a busy room. Read-together practice needs no audio.

Which devices does it work on?

Xenly runs in a web browser on tablets, laptops and phones. It can be added to an iPad home screen like an app.

Can parents see their child’s progress?

Yes, if you invite them. Each parent sees only their own child.

Can we try it before we commit?

Yes. A one-term pilot with one class is the usual start.