THRASS ACCREDITED CERTIFICATE,
GTG, SOUTH AFRICA, NOV 16-17, 2007

Fantastic, stimulating, jam-packed. I am leaving with skills to change the lives of the ones I teach. 

Very informative, well structured and presented in an amusing and captivating way. 

I loved every minute of the course and learnt a lot. Can’t wait to start imparting my new knowledge. 

Great! Really well presented. Cannot wait to implement. Teaching handwriting, reading and spelling has a whole new meaning for me. 

Excellent presentation. The interactivity and involvement of the audience has made this a valuable learning experience. The THRASS philosophy is an excellent way to teach English. Well done! 

Absolutely brilliant! Well developed concepts. Great for whole language classrooms. Develops all the senses – visual, auditory, tactile etc. Lovely! 

An outstanding course – clearly well researched, fantastically presented, clear, logical and inspirational. What a pleasure to see such passion grounded on deliberate and careful thought. I look forward to joining the journey. Thank you so much! 

A really interesting course and a great concept. An awful lot to take in in two days. Alan is a great presenter and manages to keep his audience engaged the whole time. 

Amazing. So informative and entertaining too! Looking forward to helping with homework now! 

Enjoyable. Interesting. Easy to understand. Appealing. Dynamic. 

Excellent, highly enjoyable. Very lively and interactive course. Alan is an excellent course presenter. 

An absolute joy! Excellent course! Alan is very energetic and keeps you interested. Very interactive! Very excited to start THRASS with my children. 

Very exciting course. I learnt so much and will use this with my own children even if I don’t use it at school. Thank you for keeping us engaged and interested at all times. Most enjoyable. 

Excellent, fun, attention-grabbing (and keeping) – learnt a lot – thankyou. 

Very well presented with lots of examples and different use of media. 

Thank you! Stimulating, mind-stretching! Too short to effectively implement in our training of teachers, but if you can train our teachers – perfect! Resources might be a problem in our township schools – sponsors would be a solution! 

Brilliant. It was the best new technique of helping pupils with spelling problems. I feel EMPOWERED to help the weaker as well as the stronger and more capable pupils. Two wonderful and enlightening days. Thank you Alan, you are brilliant. Well done. 

Very interesting and challenging. Mr Davies is well qualified and always makes the lesson interesting. The lesson took very long hours a day and that makes us very tired especially on Saturday. I really gained a lot of information. I do accept the way of teaching handwriting but to me joined letters looks like cursive. Keep up the good work. I am really impressed. 

Very much informative, clear and could be easily followed. I personally enjoyed everything on the first day with great enthusiasm. I just feel if the second day was even shorter, as I found it very tiring and unending. I really lost interest towards the last lesson. But all in all, thumbs up! Alan I guarantee you, with this our children will really go top! 

Excellent course, Alan is great! It is a lot of information to absorb. It would be a nice idea to spread the course out over four or five mornings instead of 2 full days. 

Very interesting, lovely vibe! Will be used in the Grade 4 class. Great way to assess the learners. 

THRASS is really going to make a difference. I cannot wait to start working on it. It is fabulous! Alan you are excellent! 

Workshop was conducted very well and the course direction involved us in taking part as the lessons proceed to the last day. The workshop should be conducted for more than 3 days, so as the participants should be more involved in the course. 

Great course, extremely encouraging. Will start on Monday with my kids. Please get sponsors to supply our schools. 

Enlightening and can’t wait to try it out. My two children are going to learn about THRASS. Thank you for your dynamic presentation. 

Very good. All aspects of learner development are taken into account. I love to develop learner support. Educators to empower school based support teams in terms of this program. 

Excellent, appropriate, extremely beneficial and worthwhile. Alan Davies is completely passionate about this and is totally entertaining. This course, presented by any other person would be a let down. Thanks for a great two days. I can’t wait to do this with my child, who has already started! 

Sceptical at first. On the second day bought into the structure, which makes complete sense. Thank you for systematising this very important skill and helping us all to become better and more interactive communicators and for making children feel good about themselves. What a wonderful contribution, Alan! 

An excellent presentation. An opportunity for many of us to reassess the way we approach and teach spelling and reading. I feel motivated and excited to take THRASS back to the Intersen phase. 

A lovely, interesting course. Very informative. Outstanding presentation. 

The course was well presented and exciting. The presenter kept the attention of the audience at all times. I really enjoyed Alan’s sense of humour! I gained a lot of knowledge. 

Well presented. Good methods of teaching and skills. An eye opener with good channelling skills. Well organised, interesting, valuable resources. Easy to incorporate with RNCS from GDE (policy).

Wow! It was such a pleasure to once again attend your course. I feel like I am a few steps forward in my preparation to teach grade fours in my new school. Next year I can’t wait to grapple with our resources and start “Thrassing” it!

Great. Changed the way I will teach and has motivated me into new lesson plans.

Useful in unlocking the English language to learners. Helpful in equipping learners to spell words using letter sounds and names. A good overview in using THRASS. Thank you for the energetic approach, Alan. Useful resources to use. Clear difference between graphs, digraphs, trigraphs, quadgraphs, phonemes/graphemes and how to teach it to learners. Useful website.  

Excellent work and course. Congratulations. Thank you so much for such an enlightening and applicable course! You are a wonderful, enthusiastic teacher – clearly passionate about your work! 

Very informative! A whole new approach to teaching literacy to young learners and have them enjoying the learning process. Thanks for the good presentation! 

It is a fantastic initiative from your side to bring this programme to us. We would like the opportunity to have you visit our school once we have implemented this programme or before! Have a great Christmas and good luck on your other endeavours! 

Well done, enjoyed the workshop. 

A very hands-on approach to teaching. Also, very systematic. Enjoyed the “reference point” approach. Learners are learning through their senses. Well done! 

Extremely well presented, entertaining, informative, stimulating and a fantastic progression from outdated teaching methods – looking forward to using your great system! 

Interesting and a real eye-opener. As a second language speaker I came to the realisation that the way I articulate sounds has been influenced by accent and not that one has no knowledge of sound names. 

I have sent staff previously while leading a school. Have had a year off and am studying. Have done some relief teaching and wanted to get to grips with THRASS. Enjoyed the course – wonderful resource materials. Well done. 

The revolution in true and effective teaching. Although it came as a shock that the past eight years of my teaching have been absolute crap. (I knew it somehow!). Thank you very much for the opportunity to better our school and our children through innovative and meaningful teaching. Mr. Davies, the “wicked” sense of humour adds magic to your extensive subject matter knowledge.  

I loved the course very much but I was not impressed with the handwriting skill especially the letter ‘f’ in S.A. Our cursive ‘f’ I like this (f) it is confusing to me. Secondly the day chosen, e.g. Saturday was too much – during the week would be fine. Thank you so much. It was worth it! 

Addictive! 

Most informative. Has given me the ‘go ahead confidence’ to teach phonics correctly. Allowing so much variety which is needed in every classroom. Excellent presenter.  

An excellent course for teachers. Finally something makes sense! I would have liked a more extensive course though on how to implement THRASS in the classroom. I feel that this course should be a longer one so as to fully comprehend it properly. Alan Davies – you’re a professional presenter with a tremendous amount of knowledge. 

Very interesting. I hope it will improve the children’s ability. There will be no more poor spelling and word reversals. Thank you to THRASS. Keep up the good work.

Very interesting but the two days is not enough. I feel the need for more training and practice. 

It was interesting, especially because I’m attending it for the first time. I really enjoyed it and I gained a lot. Keep it up! 

Very good programme. It was very interesting. Looking forward to implementing it next year. Keep up the good work. 

Dynamic presenter. Good use of different media. Interesting concept. 

Course was very interesting. Presenter excellent. 

Course was very interesting – certainly enjoyed it Alan. Many ideas that can be implemented. I find myself thinking about phonics/spelling in a completely different light. Thanks for the input and interesting way you conducted the workshop. 

Well presented and a lot of ideas we can use in our literacy teaching. 

Very well organised; good visual aids. Presenter was articulate and dynamic; who has a vast knowledge of skills. Presented different approaches that we as teachers can implement in our class, in a hands-on manner. 

Alan was dynamic, stimulating and interesting – has a good sense of humour. The course was well presented, enjoyable and could be successful in schools. It will be an interesting challenge. 

Very inspiring and informative. 

Brilliant, thankyou. I had a wonderful time! Can’t wait to get ‘stuck-in’ with the kids! 

Excellent course! Really learnt a lot and had some good laughs. Thoroughly enjoyed learning about THRASS and look forward to implementing it.

Awesome presentation! A lot of information to take in but the resources provided will be well used. Alan you are incredibly interesting, energetic and passionate. All great character traits when changing peoples’ methodologies. Had a great two days. 

A stimulating presentation. I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment but can’t wait to put it into practise! 

New approach superb. Bit of information overload! Have to spend some time going over all the literature. Need some kind of follow-up. Smaller groups might be more beneficial. 

Inspiring and motivating with super ideas! 

Excellent course! Much to absorb in little time though. 

Brilliant! Great presenter. I enjoyed the course and learnt a lot. 

A great course! I certainly learnt a lot and recommend this course to all those who have not attended it. Great aids! Alan kept us entertained for two days. 

Charismatic presenter. Simply put and easy to follow course. Knowledgeable and understanding of individual schools issues/required adaptations. Will recommend. 

Excellent course – learnt a lot about new approach, especially as it applies to special needs. Would be nice to have interactive grids for non-verbal children, modified for autistic or CP kids. Alan, you’re a very dynamic lecturer. Well done! Can’t wait to implement this. 

Excellent course. As a speech therapist working with non-verbal cerebral palsied children, I need/would like voice interaction/activation via a buddy switch and modified joystick, to be used with the THRASS picture charts on a computer. 

Well done! 

Very informative and inspiring. 

The unfortunate thing is that two days was not enough to absorb everything. The course should have been organised for a week at the most. 

Fantastic, unfortunately the time is too short. I am very glad that the new teachers are doing the THRASS course as part of their qualification. This is what we need to correct the reading problem in the schools. We need at least a week to learn all we have done in these two days. 

Course informative, eye-opener, interesting. Time: two days not really enough. More time needed. The facilitator moved fast due to time constraints. All in all, the workshop was well-presented and good usage of resources. 

Good presentation. Learners can benefit from it and enjoy it. It will improve our learners reading skills. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the course, very informative. Very organised. Alan was very energetic and bubbly. Thank you to Naptosa, ABSA and PRITT. 

Very interesting. 

Very enlightening and informative. Quite an eye-opener and stimulating. However, more days should be allocated for such a course to make a provision for demonstrations and video watching. 

It has been a very enjoyable course. I am very excited about using it. I am looking forward to the songs and know that these are going to work well with the pre-school children. 

These two days made a whole lot of good sense. It covered many years of frustration. Now we can start a new, clear future. Great to be part of it. Thank you for the energy and enthusiasm. It make me glad to be a teacher and able to train the future. Would love for you to visit our school. 

Thank you - your energy is inspiring. Incredibly informative and stimulating. Wish it were a bit longer to do practical workshops etc. Although seeing the children in action does offer good ideas to see how it really works. Looking forward to sharing all with colleagues and learners. 

Great course! Very informative and entertaining. Will definitely use it! Do you have a job for me! 

Wow! Wish I had your energy and enthusiasm! How about using a rubberised pencil tip to write over the letters instead of the white board marker. 

Very enjoyable – enjoyed your sense of humour and energy. How do you teach this in +/- 40-60 children? Also, with very different levels – in my class I have Grade 3 pupils but also levels lower. Also, how do you start with a pupil who joins your school in the fourth term and has never done this? Thanks – really enjoyed it! 

Presenter – good communication, involving and clear and precise. Lots of examples and resources used and has a good sense of humour which helps keep one anticipating. Seems an excellent programme, worth to try and I will see results after application. A well-prepared presentation. 

Well presented course.  

Exceptionally good. I can’t wait to start using THRASS. Perhaps the course could be over 3 days instead of 2 in order to go through more material. 

Well presented course. 

Enriching and a motivating method of teaching phonics in the future. 

Very interesting, information – even entertaining. Put work that we are already doing into a systematic programme. Show literacy as a multi-faceted approach. 

Interesting. Got lots to think about. 

A very good course. Well presented. Very much enjoyed. 

Fantastic! Very informative. Absorbed and learnt so much. Just makes so much sense to teach children to read, write and spell this way. Very enthusiastic and energetic presentation. Kept us alert and awake for the full two days. 

Very informative and enjoyable at all times. Not once did I feel bored. I gained a lot of new skills I can implement in the teaching of literacy to my class. The resources are great, easy to use and cost effective. I would definitely encourage all educational institutions to get trained using THRASS. 

Very valuable and interesting. Can’t wait to implement what I have learnt. Certainly not boring! 

Great! Gotton me very excited about implementing programme. A very exciting way to teach phonics. Fabulous presenter. 

The training was an extraordinary enriching experience. I have had no background in teaching children how to read, being trained as a high school teacher. Because of the huge problems we experience in our township schools with reading for a variety of reasons, i.e. have attempted to learn from books and gave up again and again. Within two days I have learnt what this exceptionally gifted trainer said from the beginning. IT IS A CELEBRATION – A CELEBRATION OF WORDS AND SOUNDS. A few things I’d like to mention. The error analysis, the unintimidating environment for children, the celebration also of their mistakes, the humanity etc. This was such a privilege. If we could only take Alan Davies to our township schools. 

Interesting but not enough time. More time needed in near future. Eye opener. Sounds learned (phonemes) Spelling choices (graphemes) Thanks a lot. God bless. Hope to see you soon. 

The course was really an eye-opener. Learnt things that I really thought were not possible to absorb in a short amount of time. Very informative. Next time I hope to learn new things about THRASS. 

Magnificent approach. Given me a new approach in teaching English to the second language speakers. It would be nice if the course can be for 5 long days so as to do it practically. However, Alan you are a star, the sky is the limit. 

Dynamic, well-presented, cool tunes, great use of resources, humorous.

I found the course to be very exciting and informative. I realised that I knew most of the things that Alan spoke about but didn’t know how to apply them in a classroom situation. 

What a fantastic concept. Finally someone is teaching language visually. Children need this visual confirmation to imprint spelling and word recognition into their sub-conscious. Alan is the most dynamic and passionate person I have ever see in the educational field. A tribute to the English language and a privilege to watch. 

Well presented and organised and I’ve learned a lot. Well done! With my experience as a Phonics and Literacy teacher, this course will just take my learners and myself to another level. 

Excellent! Really looking forward to implementing it with autistic learners and adapting curriculum accordingly. Challenge will be to implement it with non-verbal learners! Excellent presentation, great presenting skills, good pace, constant revision, great visual aids. What I love most about this course, is you are equipped with knowledge and materials to begin implementing THRASS – normally courses only give theory. 

Lots of information crammed into one workshop. Valuable ideas to implement. Complete change of our thinking and ‘old schooling’ ideas, but it all makes complete sense. 

Wonderfully informative and enjoyable. Cannot wait to report back to my Principal so that we can implement the programme in our school. Thank you to Alan and his team. Through your learner friendly programme you are going to touch the lives and futures of a lot of learners. Thank you so much and all the very best. May a lot of leaders wake up and see the value of your programme. 

Our learners are unable to read because teachers lack skills to teach reading. They do not know where to start. Grade 12 learners also have the same problem, and hence are unable to read questions critically. It would be great having D3 Tshwane North learners and teachers from Grade 1 to 12 being introduced to the programme. I did benefit a lot from this course, and I need to celebrate with all of my foundation phase teachers (Grade R, 1-3).

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