The
THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Project, due to be
launched at the end of the month, already looks set to be an
exceptional project with the potential to make a major
impact on teaching children literacy skills, while at the
same time helping to make singing, with all its associated
benefits, part of their daily lives. And this comes as no
surprise when one learns what an exceptional individual
Janine Plunkett, who wrote the songs really is. Janine wrote
all the songs with their memorable tunes and wonderful
imaginative titles, while still undergoing treatment for
cancer.
Janine
lives in South Africa with her husband and their two
children. She has a Masters Degree in Music and was formerly
Head of Music at Holy Rosary School in Johannesburg. Janine
first met British Educational Psychologist and Executive
Director of THRASS UK, Alan Davies, at a THRASS Professional
Development Course in Johannesburg in May 2007, when she was
recovering from surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Holy Rosary School had been a THRASS school for several
years but, as a specialist teacher, she had not been
involved in the initial THRASS training. However, she wanted
to understand the THRASS programme and see if there was any
way she could incorporate THRASS into music lessons to
further help the children at Holy Rosary.
Meeting Alan gave Janine the opportunity to discuss this
with him and he suggested writing a ‘Holy Rosary School Name
Song’, in which the children would use the letters of the
alphabet to spell the name of their school, and also some
other songs. So, inspired by Alan and the THRASS programme,
she wrote the ‘Holy Rosary School Name Song’ and the very
first phoneme song overnight. Later that month she wrote
seven more phoneme songs which Alan loved and by the end of
their meeting he had already formulated the first ideas for
the resources for, what has recently been officially named,
the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Project.
It is
widely accepted that music, and in particular singing, can
bring a wide range of benefits and Janine Plunkett is proof
of this. “Having cancer can completely change your life and
made me realise, amongst other things, that I would like to
use music to teach more people. Being given such an amazing
opportunity to not only compose and sing to a wider audience
but also to help children and adults learn to read, made me
realise that this was what I was meant to do and I began to
find the most amazing energy, in spite of the many
operations and sessions of chemo-therapy that I had
undergone. It was as though writing these songs was filling
me with energy and purpose and healing, with the result that
I completed the songs far ahead of schedule.”
From
the beginning, Janine had wanted the THRASS SING-A-LONG
resources to also be an education in music and it was for
this reason that she decided to write the songs in different
musical styles. The songs have really memorable tunes and
provide a good introduction to a large number of different
musical styles and dance rhythms from around the world such
as African Round, blues, Charleston, Hawaiian, Irish Dance,
jazz, ragtime, reggae, twist and waltz. And they all have
wonderful imaginative titles such as “The moon fell out of
the sky”, “A great big gorilla” and “You don’t get pandas in
Africa”.
THRASS
UK has already earned a reputation for producing highly
successful innovative resources for helping children to read
and spell as part of its widely-acclaimed THRASS (Teaching
Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) phonics programme,
and the new THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Project will
use 44 songs that parents and others can sing with children
to explain the 44 sounds and 120 main spelling choices of
English. They will be available on an interactive book and
an audio CD, which will be complemented by a 96-page
hard-back book and a colouring book.
Janine
Plunkett is currently working with 26 children aged nine to
13 on a musical production of the songs for the launch of
the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Project on 31 January
at Holy Rosary School, Edenvale, South Africa. The children,
who come from 12 schools, are all enjoying the songs and
movements so much that their parents are reporting that all
they hear at home is the SING-A-LONG songs, and Janine has
seen the children’s confidence grow and their ability to
work as a team improve tremendously over the last few weeks.
In
South Africa, SING-A-LONG is sponsored by Pritt and the Absa
bank, a member of the Barclays
Group. The launch will be attended by VIPs and
international delegates to the THRASS Absa TalkTogether
Conference being hosted by the University of the
Witwatersrand on 31 January and 1 February. Together with
parents, teachers and children from schools in the area,
they will have the chance to see the tremendous potential of
the THRASS SING-A-LONG resources for helping children, and
older learners too, develop their literacy skills.
Later
this year Janine Plunkett will be attending further THRASS
SING-A-LONG concerts in South Africa, the UK and the
Caribbean. She will also be working with Alan Davies running
THRASS MOVE-A-LONG WITH SING-A-LONG workshops in South
Africa and other countries. Reactions to a pilot MOVE-A-LONG
WITH SING-A-LONG Workshop held recently were extremely
positive and a MOVE-A-LONG WITH SING-A-LONG DVD will be
available later in the year.
The THRASS picture-based training website with easy access
to a wide range of resources and support materials and
extensive evidence of the widespread success of THRASS is at
www.thrass.co.uk
To read about the THRASS SING-A-LONG resources in advance of
the official launch, visit
www.thrass.co.uk/list2008.htm
For
more information about the THRASS Absa TalkTogether Project,
visit
www.talktogether.co.za and
www.thrass.co.uk/talktogether.htm
For details of THRASS Professional Development Courses in
the UK, Europe, West and Southern Africa and elsewhere,
visit
www.thrass.co.uk/courses.htm
Issued by: THRASS UK News Media Centre
www.thrass.co.uk/nm.htm
Mike Meade, Media Director, +44 1829 741413 Mob: 07970 151
738
mikemeade@thrass.co.uk
Chris Griffiths, International Development, +30 266 203 1207
chrisgriffiths@thrass.co.uk
