THRASS ONE-DAY FOUNDATION,
HAMPSHIRE, JAN 18, 2008

Action packed day, full of information and thought provoking discussions re how to implement in school. Great resources, extensive range of VAK available, useful for all abilities. 

Really interesting and inspiring. At last – common sense formulated into a ‘scheme’. Lively and humorous presentation. 

Great! A real insight into phonics – how have I managed 10 years teaching in junior schools without this knowledge? Changes on the way! 

Very interesting and exciting! Fast moving but easily followable! I’ll be using spelling strategies with my children to help them. I wish they had been taught like this. 

An interesting and enjoyable day in the teaching of phonics to be used in learning to read and spell. A clearly structured programme that can be used in a fun and “non prescriptive” way. Particularly liked the use of songs – a great resource for SEN – to teach spelling rules. 

Excellent – innovative, stimulating, challenging day. “Life changing” stuff. You’ve given me the ‘NAK’ (Names, Articulation and Keywords). You’re very confident and encouraging! 

Very exciting will also implement at home. Very informative and interesting. I’ve got a lot to learn. 

Fantastic – inspirational, innovative and challenging. A nice style of presentation, if a little quick with much to take in. I am looking forward to putting into practice THRASS both in school and at home. 

A huge amount to absorb and consider but I think I’ve got it. Understandably, there is a lot to cover on but the links and development through the program are becoming clear. Another thing to add to my SIP! I can see how the impact of the scheme could be huge for our children. 

Very useful to see the various THRASS resources and how to use them. Lots of ideas to take back to class and home! Am interested to see the impact of THRASS in school, especially with Y6. 

Very pacey. Lots of information delivered clearly. Am much clearer with the whole idea. Will be interesting with Y6. As a mother of a young child, we will keep reading our books together! 

A great day – Alan talked a lot of sense. Loads of great ideas. However, sometimes I felt things moved very quickly and it was a little hard to keep up. 

Energetic – thought out – joined up. How to teach when other feeder schools doing other systems? 

There was a lot to take in but it was delivered in an entertaining and interesting way. A lot of ideas to take away and put into practise immediately. I enjoyed the day and left feeling inspired. 

Very good, very interesting – may be about 30 minutes too long. 

A good day well delivered by an enthusiastic and very clear presenter. Very impressed by THRASS materials (I do wonder why schools have not always taught and still aren’t using this system). Will definitely help children with their reading, spelling and writing. 

A very good course, very informative. Great concept. Lots to take in in just the day. Perhaps need it in two days. I will definitely use lots of the ideas. 

Imaginative and logical concept. Creative ideas for how to use resources. Can clearly see enthusiasm! Certainly lots to think about. 

Dynamic and passionate input. Your turned on the ‘light”. I can now plan to use the resources we already have. 

I particularly valued the course content on spelling teaching and identification of the ‘grapheme’ stages. A much appreciated workshop for a non-KS1 specialist. Can’t wait to implement these strategies as a parent also. 

An interesting day. The THRASS system makes good sense and I will look forward to using it. Clearly presented and good resources. 

I have seen THRASS used by someone who completed your course so it was really good to understand why she was doing what she was doing! Really great and inspirational. 

Found the day interesting and informative. Enthusiastic delivery. 

Very interesting, enjoyable course. 

Enjoyed the day, especially as I had ‘dipped into’ THRASS last academic year. Looking forward to developing the programme. 

Lively, informative and empowering. How can we access training for our school?, i.e. cluster group? 

Excellent and lively… from an informed position. Good to wake up to the reality of teaching children real life. 

A very interesting day, full of detail and anecdotes. I learnt a lot about phonics and the system. I felt I still needed more information on how to use this with top juniors. 

Lots of sensible philosophy. Lots of information. Lots to think about. Would like to put this into schools but feel a bit daunted at this stage. (More opportunities for questions and answers would be appreciated). 

Superb programme and very valuable materials – now I just want to get the infant school onboard! We plan to implement with Y3/5 mix first as a part of staff training and appraisal as well.  

Super programme; bit too much information to take in in one go! Planning to use initially in Y3/5. 

Excellent course. Very useful. Will definitely take into school. Made very clear. 

Very impressed – can see the great improvement it will make to reading and spelling in our school – particularly Key Stage 2 SEN. 

Excellent! 

Plenty of ideas. Very informative. Very fast pace, Excellent. 

A fast paced day with plenty of actions for the classroom making it easy to have a go! No extra resources needed – well thought out and trialled. 

I have had a brilliant day – THRASS is beginning to make much more sense now! I have been teaching Y3 since September (they started THRASS in Year 2) and have had to take on THRASS Which was rather daunting! I have learnt with the children and we will continue learning together using the brilliant ideas from today – they are going to love Grapheme Snap! The next phase will be to enthuse the rest of the staff! I hope we do as well as you! 

An enjoyable thought provoking day. Would be really useful for other colleagues to be able to attend so we can work this together. 

Wished the rest of the school could have benefited from the day! Great pace, fun, lively resources. Love the music to accompany. Looking forward to receiving information on Day 2 and details of Open Day and Music Day. 

Fun, inspirational course – quite intense! Best thing – I can envisage how to apply in my classroom. Last session felt rather rushed though perhaps I was a little brain dead by then! 

I found this day to be very informative and offer a real insight into the teaching of phonics. This would be a great programme to bring into the University of Winchester where I am training as I feel it would act as a very good foundation for the introduction of phonics and the teaching of it. 

Having had minimal input on phonics teaching at University, I found this session very informative, and a useful insight into another approach than Jolly Phonics and Letters and Sounds! Alan’s enthusiasm motivating and inspiring. Really good ideas to encourage children – obvious that the scheme is aimed at children – to get best results – encouraging. 

Would have appreciated more time on the latter stages and how to actually implement the programme [“This is covered on Day 2! Sorry.” Alan] . Personally I think too much time spent looking at the Sing-a-Long C.D. and earlier stages – which I understood quickly – this ‘soaked up’ valuable time. I like the way the 44 phonemes are organised but I had previously been put off by the cost and the resources needed. 

Felt material is more appropriate for KS1 and primary schools – I needed more information about KS2 implementation. Felt it was a little repetitive, re-visiting bits that I felt I’d understood. Appreciate Alan’s enthusiasm for the subject and like the clarity and simplicity of THRASS. 

Interesting presentation – if taken on board will need to throw out Jolly Phonics, SIDNEY and possibly Toe by Toe. 

Inspiring – thank you. At last someone has looked at the whole picture and put things together in a systematic and manageable way. I would love to do this and will do the best that I can but I know that the cost is going to be the issue.

Useful morning with lots of ideas. Found p.m. approaching overload. Wanted to see how it fits in with Y6 top/mid literacy.

Excellent presentation style. Very useful overview and in-depth knowledge/information. Very much helped me to understand trigraphs/phonemes etc. in a broader sense. It made sense. Seems like a common sense, honest way to teach spelling. I will let the other students/tutors in my course know that it helped me and that I think it makes sense to use THRASS with children. 

An extremely worthwhile course – I would certainly recommend it to others. I’m in my second year of teaching, so my knowledge of phonemes and graphemes is based on one two hour session during my PGCE course and what I have picked up in school. I am now confident of what I can teach. I feel inspired to implement in my classroom and hopefully pass it on throughout the school. 

Interesting, informative and amusing. Fast and funny delivery – at times may be a little too fast for a slow learner! Will definitely use to further children’s reading and spelling ability. 

Very informative, a bit scary to start with but can’t wait to get it fully implemented at my school. Excellent resources, a must in any school. Very enjoyable. Alan your presentation was given with honesty and passion. 

Very good course. A lot to take in but all made sense. It would be good if this could be implemented in all schools. 

Thank you very much for such a useful and informative day. I had no understanding of the THRASS principles and process prior to today – other than the fact it used big yellow posters. I now understand how and why to implement THRASS as a way of life to my school, how to support staff and where to access resources. Alan has presented today extremely clearly and given excellent explanations to all questions. It has also been useful to understand where THRASS sits in relation to other phonics schemes.

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