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The
THRASS synthetic phonics programme is being used with
resounding success in thousands of
schools across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East,
the Caribbean and the USA to teach children of all ages to
read and spell. Wherever it is used, it surpasses all
expectations, and Western Primary School in Harrogate, North
Yorkshire, England, where THRASS is now being introduced to
the whole school, is the latest example of this success.
Western Primary School first introduced THRASS (Teaching
Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) as a programme to
help children with special education needs (SEN) but its
success has been so remarkable and the children have enjoyed
it so much, that the head teacher, Cheryl Smith, has now
decided to extend the THRASS programme to the whole school,
including the very youngest children, with the roll-out
starting from the new school year in September 2008.
This
success story started when Zara Chantler, a teacher at the
school and SEN Co-ordinator, attended a THRASS training day
in November 2007 and was so impressed that she subsequently
persuaded other teaching staff to do so too. Everyone was
very excited about THRASS and the THRASS SING-A-LONG songs,
and they became even more excited when the SING-A-LONG
interactive software arrived, with children in nearly every
classroom singing along nearly every day. The school
subsequently started to incorporate the SING-A-LONG songs
into literacy and singing, and the children started to make
remarkable progress. As Zara Chantler explained, “The
children have already made a huge amount of progress even
with small amount of THRASS they have had so far. Their
spelling has improved, and their general literacy vocabulary
has improved immensely.”
It is
widely accepted that music, and in particular singing, can
have a wide range of benefits for children, the most
important of which in the context of teaching literacy is
that it can accelerate learning and improve the memory. The
children at Western Primary School have enjoyed the THRASS
SING-A-LONG songs so much, that they will often load the
software on to the SMART Board themselves and sing along on
their own if they have any free time. They are singing the
songs at home and some of them are even going to bed singing
them. This level of enjoyment and the confidence that the
children have gained was evident from their faces at the
concert that the school put on for children in Key Stage 1
to show parents the results of their hard work at the end of
the Summer term.
Parents have also been hugely impressed and the feedback
received from them confirms that THRASS is definitely
working. “My son was really struggling to learn to read and
THRASS is the only way he’s been able to learn the alphabet
and to read. In three months he’s been transformed, so that
we now have hope for his education as he goes up into
juniors.” “It’s fantastic and a marvelous way to teach
children the alphabet.” “The SING-A-LONG songs are catchy,
easy to learn and the children really love them.” These were
just some of the remarks made by parents attending the
concert.
The
THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Project is an exciting new
project that uses 44 songs that parents and others can sing
with children to explain the 44 sounds (phonemes) and 120
main spelling choices (graphemes) of English in order to
help them to read and spell. It has already enjoyed huge
success since it was launched at the beginning of the year.
The
THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Resources have been
produced by British educational psychologist, Alan Davies,
an expert in synthetic phonics who has pioneered the THRASS
synthetic phonics programme, and Janine Plunkett, a South
African music teacher. The songs are real fun for both
adults and children, as they all have wonderful imaginative
titles such as “The moon fell out of the sky”, “A great big
gorilla” and “You don’t get pandas in Africa”, and really
memorable tunes in different musical styles and dance
rhythms.
The
original resources were an interactive book, an audio CD, a
96-page hard-back book and a colouring book, and these have
recently been complemented by two new resources, a sheet
music book and a Move-A-Long With Sing-A-Long DVD. The sheet
music book contains easy musical arrangements for the 44
SING-A-LONG songs and the SING-A-LONG theme song, so that
children can now play the songs at home and at school, on
the piano and also on other instruments, such as the guitar.
The DVD includes the World Premiere school concert
performances of all the songs, with the words displayed on
screen. The resources will all enable children, and also
older learners, to develop their literacy skills while at
the same time having lots of fun.
It is
an indication of the significance of THRASS that in South
Africa it is being sponsored by Absa Bank,
a member of the Barclays Group,
through the THRASS Absa TalkTogether Project and that Absa
Bank intends to introduce THRASS to hundreds of Government
schools in 2008 using the SING-A-LONG resources. In
South Africa, Pritt (as in the widely-known Pritt Stick,
made famous by the German company Henkel) is also a sponsor
of THRASS – with the main focus being on the SING-A-LONG
resources.
At
Western Primary School the THRASS synthetic phonics
programme is once again enjoying resounding success.
The
THRASS extensive picture-based training website for schools
and parents with access to a wide range of resources and
support materials, and extensive evidence of the widespread
success of THRASS and details of THRASS Professional
Development Courses is at
www.thrass.co.uk/teaching.htm
To see
video footage of interviews with staff and parents at
Western Primary School and excerpts from the July 2008 Key
Stage 1 THRASS SING-A-LONG Concert, visit
www.thrass.co.uk/wps08.htm
For more information about the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family
Reading Project, visit
www.thrass.co.uk/sing-a-long.htm
For
full details of the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading
Resources, visit
www.thrass.co.uk/list2008.htm
Issued by: THRASS UK News Media Centre
www.thrass.co.uk/nm.htm
Mike Meade, Media Director, +44 1829 741413 Mob: +44 7970
151 738
mikemeade@thrass.co.uk
Chris Griffiths, International Development, +30 266 203 1207
chrisgriffiths@thrass.co.uk
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