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Organiser: NAPTOSA
An empowering course that has equipped me with the skills to approach reading,
writing and spelling holistically. It was well presented and kept my attention
throughout the two days. I cannot wait to go back and implement it. It has left
me enthusiastic and motivated. A brilliant course.
Thank you so much for the exciting and motivating two days. Excellent. Wonderful
to know it’s okay to teach the alphabet using the real names right from the
beginning, and not just a sound! Would love to see this developed into
Portuguese in the future! Is it possible?
The course has been motivating. I can’t wait to start with it with my special
learners and I anticipate that they will be excited too! We look forward to
joining the Absa initiative too.
Loved the course. You have renewed my enthusiasm for teaching.
Best course I have ever attended. This is the way forward.
Very informative, inspiring course which was extremely well presented.
Exciting! Especially enjoyed watching the classroom videos. Puts all the
spelling rules on one chart. Love the ‘Periodic Table’ for spelling. A lot of
what I believe is good phonic teaching was covered.
What a fantastic experience. A really great way of teaching handwriting, reading
and spelling. I think our children will really grow at a much faster pace in
developing their literacy skills. Absolutely loved the hands on experience,
loads of fun!
THRASS is very useful and crucial to us and we benefited a lot. I wish it could
be spread all over Africa, especially as we are experiencing problems in or
schools concerning spelling, reading and the articulation of words. We would
like to express sincere gratitude to Alan Davies and his crew.
Thoroughly enjoyable. Just wish we had more time! Brilliant presentation from
both presenters.
After 30 years of teaching I’m invigorated to go and implement and share your
good practise, assured that I would be making an indelible difference to my
learners approach and attitude towards the English language. A great experience.
I’m sure going to have great fun with my grandchildren.
Enjoyable. I feel challenged but excited about changing my mindset after
teaching for 31 years. Well done on an enthusiastic, informative course!
I’m a student qualifying this year and am enthusiastic about starting my career
with THRASS. What an interesting course and very useful too. The excitement
rubbed off on me!
Excellent! Wish we had more time, so much to learn. Thanks Wits and NAPTOSA –
well organized!
WOW! I loved every single minute of this course. The content was fascinating and
I cannot wait to use it. The presenters were both so vibrant and enthusiastic
and kept us all interested (and amused). I am so excited about THRASS and think
it will prove to be an invaluable learning tool. I feel particularly honoured to
have received the training from Alan and Hilary themselves. I wish I had
received training on this wonderful learning aid years ago. Congratulations on a
fantastic “invention”, and keep up the good work - especially all the good you
are doing in our country!
BRILLIANT! It’s been an amazing two days and has made so much sense. I can’t
wait to get back into the classroom. Thank you for the good info and subject
knowledge, the entertainment (dancing etc) and all the resources. Definitely
worth coming in on a Saturday!
Brilliant! Very inspirational – presented very professionally and with humour!
Revolutionary stuff bravo! Can’t wait to implement it and to personally get hold
of the Italian version! Very informative – lot of material, info etc to absorb –
mentally exhausting but very thorough.
Inspirational! I can’t wait to start teaching English that makes sense. Exciting
and very informative.
Most fulfilling experience ever. I will be implementing it with immediate
effect. Thanks very much.
Absolutely brilliant! Loved the course and thoroughly enjoyed it. Presentation
was excellent and it was fantastic to use different senses. I am so excited to
use THRASS and am going to tell everyone about it. It’s wonderful to learn about
a programme that makes sense and is fun and exciting for both the
educator/therapist and the child. I would like to congratulate and encourage
you.
Whole to part suited me down to the ground. Keyword Analysis opened my eyes.
Picturechart inspires me to teach the alphabet in a new fresh way. I’ve taught
for many years and had a gut feeling I am not using the right method, but what
else? THRASS!
Very informative. Delivery of message was passionate and enthusiastic and thus
contagious! Inspirational – I would like to give it a go – I can see the merits!
Most enjoyable. Integrated approach to English language. I would appreciate it
if we could be used as a pilot school to implement THRASS.
A thorough system.
Alan and Hilary are truly inspiring. I hope their passion will really flow over
onto our teachers and that they can teach it to our future generations with so
much dedication and passion. Truly the way forward in our education. Fantastic
way to stop illiteracy in our country. Inspiring.
This was excellent. Now to implement! How to maintain in schools? This is a very
good programme – should have been here long ago.
Being at a remedial home school I would like to start ASAP. I’m a bit concerned
about reading at home. Parents might need some introduction, how would they be
able to assist their kids with their reading and writing? I’ve enjoyed the
course but it is a lot to comprehend in two days.
This has equipped me with invaluable information to pass on to my learners.
Hoping to get the parents involved ASAP. Absolutely excellent! Thanks so much
and blessings with all future work.
Well presented. A lot of food for thought. Good teaching aids received. Working
with children who struggle to read, write and spell correctly, this course could
only be beneficial to them and to us as teachers. Thank you for introducing us
to THRASS.
Very informative – I think it is a great system but we will have to see what
will work with autistic children. But there are certainly many things we can use
as is.
Interesting. Useful.
A very informative and exciting course. Can’t wait to implement it.
An eye-opener – I have now seen the ‘truth’. Teach ‘first time right’, simple
and effective.
This was very good!! Love it for spelling.
Presentation - dynamic. Content – would like to implement it at our school.
An eye-opener in many ways because I can now go and implement the fact that
there is a phoneme and a grapheme. It gives hope that each learner has the
ability to master the concept with confidence and still enjoy every step of the
whole programme. The course was conducted positively with people that have the
exact knowledge of what their aim is. There should be more like you guys!
Our school started using THRASS at the beginning of last year, but up until now
I wasn’t really able to use it in my class. I have got a much better knowledge
about THRASS now. I learned a lot and now I’ve got lots of work to do in my
class. Thank you for all the wonderful knowledge.
Very enjoyable! The light was turned on! Can’t wait to implement THRASS.
Entertaining, thought provoking, so positive. Well done!
A dynamic programme that has inspired me, challenged me to be creative within my
classroom – thank you! It is also clear that I have lots of homework before I
can present this to my learners.
A very enjoyable two days! I will go back to school encouraging every teacher in
the school to do this course. Once everyone has bought in the spelling/reading
can only go from strength to strength. I am very pleased that resources are
available within South Africa, and that some are free.
Outstanding! Entertaining and informative. Please come back for refresher
courses. Rather a lot to absorb! Video an excellent idea.
Dynamic, entertaining and thoroughly educational. An exciting approach to
learning English.
What a lovely and wonderful new experience. Can’t wait to get started in class.
A wonderful course. God Bless.
The most wonderful course for learners with learning problems and
Afrikaans-speaking learners in a dual medium school…and for the Afrikaans
speaking teacher having to teach English!
I enjoyed the new approach to reading and spelling. As grade 4-7 teacher, I had
no training in teaching Phonics and it was wonderful to learn how to go about
it.
Extremely slow, especially first half on Day 1. Some good ideas, but I think
everything could have been covered in one day. I think the programme is fabulous
for immigrants, remedial and Special Ed, but not totally necessary for
mainstream children.
Very dynamic duo – kept our interest and taught us adequately how to go about
teaching THRASS. Very enjoyable to be involved in an internationally recognised
programme.
Wonderful. I feel that I have learnt so much. What a dynamic team – kept my
attention at all times.
Excellent presentation. My eyes were opened to so many new things. I think the
course should have been longer. Why did it have to end? I love the way you work
hands-on with the children in township schools. You made reading and spelling
come alive. Keep up the good work.
Interesting. A valuable tool for giving remedial children a strategy for
tackling reading and spelling.
A very valuable course. A system that makes sense and can be used with all ages
and all levels. Excited to implement it at school, even at our LSEN and Aid
Class levels.
Very beneficial, informative and interesting.
Interesting and informative.
A lot of facts were clarified for me. I got a lot of interesting ideas/games to
use with the children.
Well presented. I now have a better understanding of how to present a THRASS
lesson.
A real eye opener! Thank you for being so enthusiastic.
An ear and eye opener!
Thank you, this was a fantastic experience.
AMAZING! I really will be adapting THRASS to my Afrikaans as well. Very
enlightening and thought provoking. At least now I know my kids will read and
speak much more easily than I was taught!
I really enjoyed the course. I liked Alan’s lively nature, it made learning easy
and time fly. I am very keen to try it with my four-year-olds.
A very informative, exciting course. However, a lot to absorb in two days. WOW!
A stimulating experience with a wealth of information.
The course was presented excellently. You are doing a wonderful job. Well done!
Loved it. Made a lot of sense. Cleared up a lot of ‘problem’ areas. Will start
implementing some aspects from Monday. Very comprehensive.
I loved it. Cannot wait to start with it.
A most enjoyable and interesting course. A real eye-opener to the spoken
language. I can go back to school with the ability to assist those learners who
really struggle with language.
Informative and fun. Well presented and organised.
I really enjoyed this course. I have learnt so much. I will now able to help my
own child who is struggling with English. I am sure the learners in my class
will enjoy doing THRASS.
At last! Thank you so much, it was fantastic. Teaching at a dual medium school
where we often try to bring in new ideas to establish language in both English
and Afrikaans, without confusing the children, this is definitely going to work!
Your enthusiasm and passion for what you do and believe in has truly rubbed off.
Roll on Monday!
Congratulations to you both – the THRASS Connection – THRASS has been
mind-blowing and just awesome to learn. My 4 year old learnt the rap at 3 and
could/can identify pictures and words! I feel privileged to have the course
conducted by yourselves. Thank God for THRASS.
We came here really cautious about embarking on THRASS at our school. What a
well–presented course, full of ideas and information. Animated presenters and
fun-filled! I think we’re keen to get started, but with caution. Need time to
familiarize ourselves with the content.
Very convincing – good principles. It does take something of a leap of faith to
throw out everything that has worked up till now and step into the unknown.
Perhaps too much information for two days. Would 3 or 4 days, with more time for
conversation and modelling of principles, work better?
A vibrant and dynamic course! Easy to “catch the vision” of THRASS. I feel like
I need at least another week to train and learn to implement it! Looking forward
to giving it a go in the classroom.
Inspiring – informative – convincing. Well done – I thoroughly enjoyed the two
days! The major effort going off into developing this system is amazing.
I attend this course, not because I teach Foundation Phase, on the contrary, I
teach Senior Phase Maths! However I wanted to gain an understanding of what
THRASS is all about in order to support the staff. I have found it to be a
logical way of teaching language, and thus it will get my absolute support.
Thank you to Alan and Hilary, your passion for your product make you superb
presenters.
Thank you for a really fantastic and informative course! English really makes
sense now! Can’t wait to start putting some of the ideas into practise.
Fantastic! I teach Mathematics in the higher grades. I really feel strongly that
THRASS should be implemented throughout our school. I will be using it with my
learners that struggle to read and write. I have two children that are
functionally illiterate.
Literacy whole view approach as I’ve never experienced previously – quite a deal
to absorb in two days, especially if not involved with the methodology at
present. Presenters well-equipped to put over the concepts – good use of
resources within their presentation.
What an excellent course!! The best I have EVER attended in over twenty years of
teaching! Presented by the most excellent couple ever. Absolutely
‘mind-boggling’. Believe me I will be putting this into practise with my Grade
3s asap. Wish we could have had a week’s workshop, with hands on prac times.
Keep up your ENTHUSIASM and excellent teaching. So much ENERGY is admirable!
As an English teacher my ways of teaching phonics won’t be boring any more. I am
going to be an expert in teaching spelling!
It’s a great new look! It will be really useful. I look forward to putting it
into practise. Alan – great with kinaesthetic approach! Hilary – great back-up.
Thanks so much.
Alan, Hilary and Mike, great to see the team in action. I now have a much better
understanding of the challenge faced by teachers!
Fantastic to tie up all the loose ends! THRASS is an incredibly intuitive
programme and it has helped my children immensely in all areas of literacy.
Thank you for a very enjoyable two days. Have heard some comments from the
“tea-time floor” that perhaps Alan does not always answer questions properly but
goes off on a tangent (as passionate as that tangent might be!).
Super course, really enjoyed it. What a fantastic, enthusiastic and energetic
speaker who kept us entertained the entire time. The course was very informative
but felt that there was so much to be taught that it could have been done over a
few more days.
Dynamic presenters. Lots of re-thinking and re-evaluating to be done about our
current systems used. Will implement with enthusiasm and positively. Thank you
for making so many resources available to both educators and learners. Thanks
for explaining how to teach the more difficult words too. Really enjoyed course.
Really enjoyed the course. Hilary and Alan presented it well - fun and lively.
Two days were definitely not enough. More time spent on each age group would
have been appreciated.
A well presented programme. I feel it should be three days and split into age
groups.
Alan and Hilary are very enthusiastic and this carries over to their audience.
I’m very enthusiastic to get back and implement. Would have liked more breakdown
of ages and where to start in the programme with small children – could be
another day – spending time with different ages taught.
Please be specific on how to use THRASS to teach children African languages e.g.
teaching English speaking children Sepedi. Focus more on hands-on activities for
Grade 1-3. During the workshops organise the professionals into groups and hear
their suggestions on how they would implement THRASS. They can brainstorm their
ideas. Two days is too short.
Really useful – informative, did however feel that the course was a bit slow at
times. Impressed with the phonics – will definitely implement in my classroom
and with my own children.
An exciting, informative course. A little too much information in too little
time, but really exciting as I can see how it will work.
Great. I think it would have been good if it was spread over a longer period of
time. It was a lot of info for two days. I think it is an excellent way of
teaching learners literacy.
An amazing eye-opener. Very full but interesting. This course must be compulsory
in all schools.
Excellent - fruitful and educational. I wish to have more lessons on THRASS as
it is a new good approach. Facilitators were outstanding and very enthusiastic.
Our learners will benefit from THRASS as we are facing difficulties with those
that can speak English fluently, but can’t write and read.
A most amazing course – very clearly presented (with wonderful anecdotes) – too
short! This methodology is just amazing and a definite for our country and the
school I am going to teach. Thank you both Alan and Hilary.
Amazing. Thanks for enlightening me and allowing me to think out of my ‘language
box’. I am proud to be a teacher and it is with wonderful programmes, like
yours, that I love my job! Thank you for making me feel special and important! I
touch the lives I teach – you have made this possible.
Excellent! I am a Senior Primary teacher and am now thinking of going to Junior
Primary just so I can teach THRASS from the very beginning!
The course has opened a whole new and exciting approach to teaching English (and
other languages). Both Alan and Hilary are wonderful charismatic ambassadors to
the World of Literacy.
Outstanding. I wish I’d known all this long ago. I am a senior primary teacher
and have never known how to help pupils with poor spelling skills. A very
exciting programme and inspired course!
Course presented with passion and enthusiasm. Thank you for addressing the
literacy problem we have in South Africa and Africa. It is encouraging that
progress is being made in this regard. I hope that our government will make this
programme compulsory as the Foundation Phase for all our young children. Thank
you Alan and Hilary for your time and effort and may both you and your team
continue to revolutionise the education system. God bless and farewell.
I am blessed and happy to be exposed to THRASS as I have been using the old
sound teaching. I enjoyed THRASS and wish that the training time can be
increased from two to five days. As an educator from a disadvantaged location I
am happy as I can improve the sound teaching to our black learners. Thank you
for giving us that change. I’ve grown mentally.
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