THRASS TWO-DAY CERTIFICATE,
GTG, SOUTH AFRICA, FEB 6-7, 2009

This course should be part of teacher training for ALL teachers. Excellent course. 

Excellent! The days went by in a flash. The practical and humour made the course fun and exciting. May all government schools be forced to implement THRASS. The best of luck! God bless! 

Excellent! Why didn’t we have THRASS 30 years ago? 

Amazing! As an Afrikaans speaking teacher, teaching in English, it’s been a great help! 

Excellent! Learnt a great deal. We have not done THRASS at our school before but will do from now! Thank you for a lovely two days. 

Outstanding. I feel motivated but I have so much to learn. I would like slower training over a longer period to become more confident. Alan is a fabulous presenter, with a wonderful sense of humour. 

What an eye opener. A vibrant presenter. Ten out of ten. I really enjoyed your course. 

Excellent! Never a boring moment. I am convinced. Very informative. I am very eager to start teaching THRASS in my class. 

A really informative and worthwhile course. Enjoyed it so much. Am looking forward to getting back to school and putting all my new found knowledge to good use. Very entertaining. 

Excellent. I will definitely use THRASS in all my lessons. I am so glad that I have been introduced to such a fantastic, new way of teaching. 

Very excited, well organised course. You opened a “new world” for me. Two days well spent! 

Amazing. THRASS is something that every school needs. I am very excited to use it with the children at school. Alan Davies is a wonderful and captivating teacher. Thanks for a great course! 

A truly fantastic course! I have never enjoyed a course so much. The ideas are wonderfully logical and fun to teach. I feel truly inspired. I have been desperate to get started on THRASS for months! 

Very insightful. Definitely will recommend it to others in the profession. Lively and well planned presentation. Congratulations on your “invention” Alan – truly amazing! 

THRASS is a fun, exciting way of teaching spelling. Informative and interesting. I enjoyed it. 

Brilliant! Very informative and entertaining. Great enthusiasm. Easy to follow and understand. Seems like it would be easy to implement. 

Informative, interactive, very quick progression through the system. 

An extremely interesting and enjoyable course. I have a new understanding and insight into teaching reading and writing. I do feel that there was a lot of information given in a very short time. 

An interesting and dynamic two day course which has given me a lot of thought on the teaching of phonics. However, I do feel as though I am suffering from information overload. Perhaps it could be spread over three days and preferably not on the weekend. Overall, three thumbs up! 

Very interesting – programme makes so much sense. Well presented, loved inclusion of how to put certain aspects across to the children. I had heard that THRASS is ‘too complicated’ and ‘confusing to use with young second language learners’ – RUBBISH! 

Great, can’t wait to try it on my support children. 

Excellent! Easy to understand and easy to do. I can’t wait to report back to school and get my kids started on THRASS! 

Very informative. Immensely useful with spelling and reading. Alan made the course seem so easy to absorb. I wish it goes down that easily at school as it will sort out a lot of problems experienced by children at the moment. 

Informative and I learnt so much from the course. I am looking forward to going back to my learners and starting with it. Good material as well.  

Lots of information! Thanks for the inspiration and I can’t wait to start! Alan, you are a great presenter and I really enjoyed the course! 

A wonderful course! Alan’s passion for literacy was so inspiring. Hope more and more schools implement this system. p.s. Thanks to Alan for positively mentioning  ‘Montessori’ in the lecture. 

Brilliant. Now have a starting place to assist my children.  

Very interesting. However, a lot of information in a short amount of time. The course would work better through the week, as opposed to a weekend day. 

Interesting and interactive. It is very useful and could make a big difference in schools. Alan Davies is a good presenter in keeping people interested and enthusiastic. 

A real eye-opener to the sounds and reading teaching methods. It was great and very enlightening. I am now very excited to go and teach the kids. Very on the ball. Alan your course is great. You have excellent people skills. Well done. 

Presentation was excellent! Nice ideas and games – quite an exciting approach to literacy. Just too much information for just two days. Would have preferred it to be over more days. 

Excellent presentation and imparting of information. Thoroughly enjoyable. We would need more than two days for this course – too comprehensive. 

A dynamic course. A real eye opener. 

Excellent presentation and very good materials offered. Very informative, really makes me excited and am hoping my school will implement it soon. 

An interesting, well organised course. Excellent presentation! The resources are fantastic and very impressive. I was quite a bit worn out towards the end. Great!  

Enjoyable. Alan was enthusiastic and easy to listen to. He was very interactive which was great. However, as a teacher of older learners I found that a lot of the material was geared to a younger age. A suggestion might be to run separate workshops for teachers of younger children and teachers of older children. 

Fantastic! Songs are lovely and entertaining. I really think it will make a difference. 

It was great. I really enjoyed it. Got some excellent ideas. THRASS is more than just rap – bird rabbit! Alan – very dynamic, energetic, excellent presenter. Good luck. God bless you! 

Thank you for your input and wonderful ideas. I am sure this programme will benefit our children. 

Overall, I enjoyed the whole course! Alan is an AWESOME speaker. At some point I got a bit (only a bit) bored but I think it’s because I knew a bit about THRASS from teaching my Gr. 1’s this year. 

I have really enjoyed the interaction and the enthusiasm of Alan. The fact that we have some great teaching activities from three year olds upward gives us an idea of where to start. 

It’s motivated me to teach my children to learn THRASS the right way. Alan you were great. Well done on all your hard work. 

I enjoyed these two days tremendously! Thank you Alan for creating THRASS and for helping me to turn a corner in my career. I’m converted! God speed to the whole team. 

A most inspiring and motivating course! Thoroughly enjoyed it! I feel very excited to go back and start implementing what I have learnt. Since I only have high school training, I have found the course very valuable. I feel much more confident and able to teach my class good literacy skills.

I now understand what THRASS is all about. It makes so much sense. I will now implement it to all my lessons each day. Well done Alan. Amazing to think so many children all over the world are using THRASS and reading. 

A wonderful course for teaching reading and spelling. A very lively presenter, giving us wonderful ideas for our classes. Nice to have a cross curricular program. 

Good. Nice to divide into grades. Not too sure what some grades should be doing. Lots of information in a short time. Add extra day (start Thursday). We were very entertained. 

Very informative. Communicated well. Great material. Would prefer stages to have been explained in order (step-by-step). I have not taught children to read, spell, write, etc. and now thanks to THRASS I know where to start! And succeed well at it. 

Fabulous! Alan kept us interested and on task for the entire full two days. I feel very well equipped to start teaching THRASS. It is the first PD I have been to where I feel as if this is something which I can  actually use! It’s also great that it’s internationally recognised. 

Well presented. Presentation was light while also sound in content. I have learnt a lot – makes such logical sense. Hopefully many children will benefit here in South Africa. Energetic input! 

Excellent. THRASS is already well implemented at the school but being on the course stretched and inspired. I would have preferred not to be fed and to have received the Sing-A-Long CD! 

Very well presented. 

Learnt a lot. Very enjoyable. Well presented. Good ideas. 

Was very informative. Enjoyed the hands-on learning. Lots of great games and ideas. Learners will benefit 100%. Great presentation and lively presenter which keeps it going. 

Very interesting and informative. 

Very interesting, filled in all the gaps that I have been unaware of. Alan Davies put on a great show! 

It all makes a bit more sense now. 

Very good. Eye opener for teaching English! 

Well presented. Phenomenal idea!  

Enjoyed the course. Very informative. Can’t wait to do it. Lots of tips help to give us ideas. 

A well presented and most informative course. Inspiring and does make ‘sense’. Large volume of information. Would love to have an age-specific course or follow-on. Great to have had additional information – local course, open day, resources and so on. Thank you! Most enjoyable and excellent. 

Interesting. Like to share with my friends and children. 

Very interesting. Lots to digest. Will need a follow-up course soon. 

Presenter very enthusiastic and the course and content was very logical. 

Very delightful information and interesting learning curve. I hope my grade ones enjoy it as much as I did. God bless Alan. 

Eye opener. Interesting! Stunning! 

Great course! As a parent I have a better understanding of what my kids are learning at school and I now know how to supplement their learning. 

Very informative. Learnt a lot and am more confident about teaching THRASS. Would appreciate it if more games and ideas would be shared. How to actually go about it step by step would be good. However, for a person who did not know anything at all about THRASS, I’m very happy to say I’m very impressed with it and am looking forward to teaching and passing on this information to my learners. Great job Alan! 

Most interesting! Will definitely apply this!

Great stuff. Would be nice to have it be a bit longer though. 

Absolutely amazing. Alan spoke with such passion, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. You have to have your brain switched on all the time to keep up, which I love. Loved this course. 

Absolutely brilliant! Definitely the way of the future. You are a wonderful teacher who is able to get the message across. 

Very educative and the programme was well organised. Before I attended the course I found it very difficult to teach THRASS but now I’m looking forward to going back in class and teaching THRASS. 

Thoroughly enjoyed the course. Quite informative and a very user friendly programme. Suggest Cluster Co-ordinators for all THRASS schools. 

Mind blowing! Amazing!  

Workshop was well presented. It was lively, entertaining and very educational. Will definitely use it. 

Well presented. I really enjoyed it. (Too much content in Day Two as we were a bit tired by then!) 

Wow! Now even I will be able to spell! 

A brilliant course with a brilliant, entertaining and passionate speaker! Fantastic programme. Fantastic man. We would have liked some focussing on how to implement THRASS in older grades. 

Lots of information – not enough time to assimilate. Interesting – useful for Foundation Phase Second Language Learners and learning disabilities. Useful, great ideas but these resources are needed to implement THRASS effectively in the classroom. 

Excellent. Entertaining and stimulating. Terrific material and presentation. I learned so much and believe now to have all the tools to start teaching THRASS to our pre-schoolers. 

Interesting. Will have to work hard to use with Grade 4’s. Some more complex spelling lists would be useful. 

I enjoyed the course and am excited to implement ideas. It is a lot of information to absorb and I realise I need to become familiar with THRASS before I can teach the children (four year olds). 

Very well presented. We will definitely do the THRASS thing! 

Very informative. Daunting but can be implemented. Mind boggling. Charismatic and passionate presenter.  

Content and presentation were brilliant. I did find it too lengthy but in truth I was never bored. 

Well done! Would have liked more information about how to carry over to special needs children on severe spectrum (autism). 

Very good. May be a bit more focus on special needs children – especially how to adapt to autism. 

Wonderful! More information on how to present this to autistic children. 

Very interactive, informative. Wonderful ideas. Well presented. Dynamic presenter. What an eye-opener! THRASS being implemented in my school currently in Gr. 1 and 2. Looking forward to using it in senior classes. 

Very interesting. Bit of information overload but thoroughly enjoyed it. Will definitely incorporate it in daily class. 

Very informative. Enthusiastic and entertaining presenter. Excellent resources to implement it. 

Alan was particularly good. His energy was fantastic. I think the concept of THRASS is extremely beneficial to any learner around the world. I look forward to implementing it in my class. 

Very informative and interesting. Makes a lot of sense. Alan was a charismatic and very entertaining presenter. I am very keen to implement in my classroom but I am feeling a bit unsure of how to use to teach initial reading skills to Grade 1. 

Generally good but a bit repetitive. The program seems excellent and think it is very beneficial. Would love to hear your ideas on implementing it with learners with autism – quite low on the spectrum but gestalt learners, i.e. whole word learners – already using THRASS but would love to extend our use of it. 

It was worth it and I enjoyed it very much and looking forward to passing THRASS knowledge to learners at my school on daily basis. 

It was very inspiring and very much educative. It’s also full of life. 

Excellent. I was relieved in the first ten minutes that Alan believes in a ‘whole language’ approach to literacy and language learning. I thought THRASS was going to be a ‘typical’ traditional phonics programme, i.e. boring. I thought the Limpopo video was amazing! This programme brings hope to me and that school. Hope is very important in South Africa. I am so excited for Monday – yay!

Amazing! Can’t wait to begin. 

It was very good. I have lots of ideas on how to teach and help my learners to improve their handwriting, reading and spelling skills. 

Alan is very enthusiastic and inspiring. Good and lovely resources. Would like to start on Monday! 

Exciting. Very intensive. I look forward to implementing what I have learned in my classroom with my squatter camp children. 

I have learned a lot from the workshop, because I have learned new things that I didn’t experience before, so it was worthwhile. I have enjoyed and gained more promising to plough back to my colleagues and learners. 

A great course – lots of laughs BUT learning took place. A lot of information in too little time perhaps – I wouldn’t mind attending a longer course. Alan is great to listen to – I admire his knowledge on the subject – his energy is very inspiring. 

I greatly benefited from the course. It was extremely thought-provoking and involves a mindshift. It most definitely was not boring. The challenge is now to implement the programme and persuade other staff members to embrace it. 

Exciting, exhilarating, enlightening! A whole new learning curve that will help the generations coming to read, write and spell. What a brilliant lecturer – Alan Davies! 

Very interesting; overwhelming re content. Need more practise to implement.  

Fantastic! I’m so excited to implement this into my classroom. Love the Sing-A-Long.

6-7 February 2009 changed my career forever! Alan, thank you for the best presentation. 

Very interesting. I really enjoyed the fresh, new approach to phonics and to teaching spelling and reading. There wasn’t a boring moment. I learnt so many new ideas which I look forward to teaching and sharing with the students!

Alan’s enthusiasm and passion were inspirational. The course has been very informative and logical. Although I had read about THRASS the course made it concrete. 

Enjoyed the course. Was well worth coming up from KWA Zulu Natal. I will be sharing much of this with folk who home school. 

Having used THRASS in my classroom for three years with effectiveness – it is great to have the in-depth knowledge to use it even better! Thank you for making the course interesting, challenging but also fun – it is so much easier to remember the loads of information imparted with the funny moments as “memory markers”. Thank you for hosting us. It was an honour and a privilege to learn from you personally. 

Tremendous content! Such an eye-opener that we’re in 2009 and still teaching 19^th century techniques. Thank you so much for putting such a world changing program together! We’ll be changing lives. 

I enjoyed the course! Now I hope to be able to assist learners who struggle in the classroom. 

More time needed to focus on the nitty, gritty of the actual implementation of THRASS in the classroom. A good and interesting system, but some questions were not answered. For example, what happens when new children have to still catch up the first stage when the rest of the class is already on stage 3? Too much knocking of other systems (like Letterland). Although I see the merits and advantage of THRASS, it is not necessary to knock other programmes. As THRASS proves itself, it’s popularity will grow without the need to knock other programmes and systems. [“It is my place to explain how THRASS differs from other programmes and why I believe they should not be used. For example, Letterland teaches children that each letter has only one sound and then proceeds to use contrived stories to explain the digraphs and trigraphs of English, treating them as if they were consonant blends containing two or more phonemes – when they are not!” Alan] 

Interesting and presented us with some exciting and innovative ideas. I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

RASS

An informative and interesting course. Was nervous to ask questions because of his response (made to feel stupid). Looking forward to implementing it in my class. [“What! I am shocked to read your view on the asking of questions. I don’t think, judging from all the other comments, that this is how the other delegates felt. Besides, all of my breaks were spent answering questions!” Alan] 

Thoroughly entertaining. Am greatly enthused to implement it in my Grade (already implemented Gr. 00-Gr 3). Now I understand how to correctly assist my own children who are using THRASS at school. A large amount of information. Perhaps area group workshops need to be held to help develop and implement THRASS in higher grades. Aids are brilliant and user friendly. Thanks for being truthful! Implementing this will take much time and effort but will be fruitful. Thank you so much for enlightening me! 

Great! Have learnt much. Have much more to de-learn! Exciting teaching methods! Super resources. Great use of electronic software and free resources available. 

The two-day course has given me answers to help learners who are struggling with phonics and spelling. I’m ready to begin to help them. 

Excellent. I learnt a lot. 

Very interesting way to teach English phonics. 

Very interesting. I learnt a lot. Rather frustrating as I can see the need for each staff member to attend the course! 

Thank you for the enthusiastic way in which the course is presented. It was eye-opening to see how the rural schools are so successfully implementing THRASS. I sincerely hope that teachers can change their mindset and become as enthusiastic about THRASS as Alan Davies. 

A dynamic presenter. A lot to absorb in two days. Too much commercial selling tactics. Will take a while to train all teachers. 

Really good. I did enjoy it, to the point where I went home and learnt the entire chart. I would like to go on a longer course as I found it a bit difficult to remember everything and I think a slower pace would have been more beneficial for me. Alan was phenomenal and it’s easy to see that he enjoys his job. We will enjoy implementing THRASS in our school. 

“I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it”. Thumbs up! Finally phonics made sense. Alan your energy and knowledge is mind blowing. Grade 1’s will write better sentences and feel confident. I wish you all of the best and thank you for changing lives. ABSA - please help ALL government schools. We might have good names but finances are always an issue. 

Thank you so much. Every educator should do this amazing course. THRASS is the future! So grateful. Will pass the message on to everybody with the highest regard! Well done! 

Absolutely fantastic! 

Excellent. Very enjoyable. I would love to do more. 

Very interesting. Lots of information that will be used a great deal within the classroom! 

Excellent, inspiring. 

Being a teacher for over 20 years this course has empowered and enlightened me. Thank you so much for making this course interactive and fun. Alan, you are brilliant. Do you realise that you have actually created a legacy and solved our Literacy problem. God bless you and your family. So many people want to change the world, so few actually do. You have changed the world with THRASS. 

Extremely educational and informative. Practical and interactive. THRASS was an amazing creation that assists teachers and therapists to work collaboratively which has been a difficult task to achieve in South Africa. It also assists reading and spelling to all children; irrespective of their disability which was also a difficult accomplishment in South Africa. 

Very good, learned a lot. Changed my view about phonic learning. We should have had this years ago. Alan Davies is a very good teacher. Really enjoyed the course. 

Informative and lively. Definitely a more logical way of teaching reading and spelling. 

Very informative. Useful in classrooms. Can be used in therapy. Alan is very engaging and very entertaining. Keeps me attentive. Really enjoyed this course. 

The course has confirmed that my approach to the reading programme is correct. I have been empowered to continue with my project at school and at the church. Areas of difficulty should now no longer be insurmountable obstacles. Will encourage others to participate in this training. 

Excellent and relevant. Presenter entertaining and enthusiastic and kept audience captive. 

Fantastic! Excellent concept and presented in an easy to understand manner. Well worth it!  

I would really like to say that for the first time I actually understand THRASS properly! I think Alan is an excellent presenter and time flew by as we were drinking in all the information. Thank you so much and wishing you all the best for the future. Hope to cross paths again. 

Absolutely fantastic! What a wonderful way to teach children how to read, write and spell. How wonderful to attend a course that is worthwhile and positive in its approach to education. The organisation and presentation was excellent. Thank you so much for a super two days.

Return to TOP

Back           Next