|
Portable
Document Format
An excellent two days. Couldn’t have been at a
better time in light of the Rose Report. It all made a lot of sense. I will feed
back to colleagues, letting them know how useful it has been.
A very informative course! It has made me re-think a lot of spelling strategies
I previously thought I knew and used in my teaching! I wish I’d been introduced
to THRASS earlier in my teaching career.
Very good and informative. Excellent presentation, - fast moving, amusing and
covered everything I anticipated. Thank you for updating and improving my
knowledge of phonics.
Fantastic reinforcement. I came on the course a few years ago and it has been
useful to see how much THRASS has moved on and yet the same important messages
are coming through. The presentation as before has been clear, entertaining and
very instructive.
Very informative and interesting. Good presentation and valuable resources.
Lots of very good and useful information plus lots of practical ideas to use in
the classroom. Very enjoyable and fast moving! Covered all aspects of phonics
that I needed.
Some really good ideas to teach spelling which I’ll try out when I get back to
school. Thank you.
Very informative. An excellent and lively presentation.
A very valuable and informative two days. Many good ideas for the classroom.
Inspirational ideas to teach the children. Good resources to start.
Excellent program and resources – makes a great deal of sense! Has clarified a
lot and I’ve learnt a lot. I’m looking forward to using it back at school.
Presentation was great. An interesting two days.
Interesting – encouraging discussion and review of practice. Quite a lot to take
on board in two days.
Lots of good ideas. I’m much more aware of the technical terms for things now.
I’m looking forward to having a go – I’m sure the children will love it –
especially the raps. Lovely to have something concrete to work with – especially
seeing as spelling never came easy to me so I worry about teaching it!
A very interesting course that encourages teachers to re-think and re-evaluate
their teaching.
Good course that triggered lots of ideas to use within class. Lots to think
about and put into practice.
Lots of fantastic teaching ideas. Can’t wait to start implementing THRASS
properly in my classroom.
Enjoyed course learned a lot. Can’t wait to take ideas back to class.
An excellent phonic learning system well presented. THRASS has come on a long
way since my initial training. The staged programme, assessment and enhanced
learning materials have really made this a more ‘user friendly’ system. Well
done, Alan and colleagues.
Lots of fantastic practical ideas to go away and use in the classroom and the
home.
Very informative – you’ve cleared up quite a few misconceptions – especially
with the technical terms. I’ll certainly use the material.
Excellent! Lively presentation. Punchy. To the point. Lots of ideas and
resources for me to use.
Outstanding. I have listened to a couple of different people presenting the
concept of THRASS and always liked what it was teaching – now I really
understand it and can’t wait to implement it in our school. Thank you for a very
enjoyable and enlightening course. Thank you for the resources too.
This has clarified lots, which I was confused about regarding the programme.
There was much to take on board and I feel I will have to develop this in small
stages in the classroom. A useful tool for children to use when making spelling
choices and decisions. The ‘15 minutes a Day’ idea seems a good option.
Excellent resources. A lot to take in. Good quality presentation at pace. A very
complete package. I feel that shorter sessions with more but shorter breaks
would have been a better format for me.
As a teaching assistant I work with a teacher who has had THRASS training. I
have assimilated a lot of the concepts involved but this has clarified my
understanding and will improve my practice.
Great course – although I am completely thrassed now! Very enthused and have
already planned it into this week’s teaching. Feel I have a much better
understanding of phonics now. Thanks – excellent.
As a new teacher who had received very little phonics teaching at University,
this course has been very useful and helpful. I would feel much more confident
teaching this now.
Lots of beneficial and adaptable information. Allows greater confidence from an
NQT perspective.
Certain aspects I personally will use immediately, other aspects we need to
discuss and make decisions about as a school. Lots to absorb and think about
both as a teacher, a manager and a Mum! A few sessions not too useful –
handwriting – these periods of time would have been useful as school discussion
sessions – what impact will this have in our school? Initial reactions? etc.
Thankyou.
The whole key word system has a definite place in any class. I found some of the
presentations informative, enthusiastic but certain presentations lacked energy,
pace and audience participation.
Overwhelmed with a “load” of very useful information. I feel I have a lot of bad
teaching to undo! You both were super presenters! You gave us a variety of
activities that I feel I can begin tomorrow!
Worked well as a team. Lots of information to take in! Feel like I’m a rubbish
speller now but think I will be more confident teaching THRASS. Alan – did you
regret not becoming a dancer!
Very interesting analysis of synthetic phonics has increased my subject
knowledge greatly. Lively and humorous presentation that engaged me throughout!
Thankyou.
This course has reinforced my determination to continue using the charts, for
many of the ideas suggested, such as spellings and using the chart for
segmenting (analysing) sounds etc.
A much clearer picture of the programme. Concerns over application/involving
accent and dialect cleared up. Very valuable two days.
Excellent – thanks! Hopefully we will use ASAP. I believe that my class will
benefit greatly from it.
Excellent. For years I have taught the alternative choices of graphemes for
different phonemes to KS3, KS4 and adults and now to KS2, but the THRASS map is
great at bringing it all to one place. I look forward to using it and teaching
phonics in this way. I teach, and have taught, a lot of children and adults who
are in the right box but have just made the wrong choice! I have really enjoyed
the 2 days.
How nice to hear what we’ve been trying to do for a long time – and to have
something at last that can go all the way through the school. I came to just one
of your initial sessions years ago, but to hear the whole is really important.
Thank you both for your enthusiasm, clear presentation and (that thing the
Government are not encouraging in school!) FUN – (and time to read with children
– you hardly have chance to fit it in now! I’m getting too old for all the
changes). Loved your course. Thankyou.
A very valuable course that extended our current practice and set it into a
context that is applicable to the whole school. I am tired now but very keen to
implement all that we have covered. Thanks.
The best two-day course I have attended – ever. Really got a grasp of
phoneme-grapheme relationship for first time. We will definitely be implementing
it in our school – the staff wouldn’t allow us not to.
I really enjoyed these two days. It was a lot of information to take in but like
Alan said “the more information; the better it is to understand”. I will try my
best to influence my head principal to learn more about THRASS and implement
this program in our school! I also realised how important it is to start in the
early years and as a school. I am definitely going to teach this to my own kids!
A highly motivating course which I’m looking forward to using in the classroom.
I’m interested in seeing how this will work alongside current phonics policy in
the early years. I have increased my own subject knowledge and will there be
refresher courses in the future? Many thanks!
A very useful course, with a wealth of resources – phoneme machine particularly
useful and look forward to integrating THRASS into the curriculum. Delivered in
a stimulating, non-patronising way. Would like to follow up and revise through
e-mail course, in order to share THRASS with LSA’s and parents in school.
Useful update on THRASS. The provision of an interactive whiteboard focus will
be most useful especially as part of a presentation to LSA’s and parents and to
involve children in analysis of sounds. The stages are new as is the A3 guide
and serve to key in to exact skills – again, helpful as a presentation to
others.
Enjoyed the course, although very intensive! I’m a convert but have reservations
about any suggestions that 3/4 year olds should be so focussed on print and
spelling (T3, T4, T5) in a structured way. (No argument with reading a book in
the bath with Dad if the child is interested but KS1 practice should be mostly
directed at speaking/listening/singing pictures etc. – in my view of course).
Fast pace, packed a lot into a relatively short space of time. A good overview –
would like to attend an age specific course for FS1/FS2 with opportunity to
discuss issues related to early years with a practitioner.
Enjoyed the course – was really looking forward to watching Captain THRASS -
like Phoneme Machine.
Very much enjoyed the whole experience – it’s going to be extremely useful.
Dragged up a lot of memories (good and bad) from past learning and teaching
experiences!
Glad to know I could use THRASS in FS1. However, time is now needed to get
together as a whole school to be sure of where we are going next. I felt the
course hard going at times in terms of sustaining my attention through a
sedentary listening process. Could there be ways to make it more VAK for adult
learners. I’m glad to know about it and think it is an excellent programme but
presentation of it could be better. Sorry, I’m too tired to be constructive.
Thankyou.
THRASS has moved on a great deal since I first looked at it, several years ago.
The course was delivered in a lively, interactive way, which is important. We’re
going to take the programme on, so now need to sit down as a staff and ‘THRASS’
a few things out. Our FS2 teachers are still a little concerned about where to
start when introducing phonemes. The scheme will give some guidance – we all now
need to give it a go!
A good trigger for THRASS whole school teaching!
Very good and worthwhile have seen the charts before but they now make sense!
Feel strongly that it needs to be a whole school approach and hopefully we’ll
take it on.
Great! This has given me a much clearer groundwork on which to teach my lower
ability. It has also boosted my confidence – I did know what I was talking about
after all! Thanks for the resources.
Excellent information – have watched THRASS lessons in UK school but didn’t want
to use it as it didn’t make sense! It is obvious now that I needed quality
training – I would have been using it for years!
Very informative and will strive to ensure I can fully use the materials. I have
used the chart/rap with my own child and have seen him improve his spelling and
reading ability greatly.
R.I.P. the ‘Hairy Hat Man’ and his chums! Having been taught ITA and been
‘obliged’ to use Letterland to teach others, I can honestly say I have never
felt confident in explaining “was” or “photo” but I can now! Thank you so much
for making an old teacher feel refreshed and ready to THRASS all in her wake.
Return to TOP |
