I was honoured to be invited to attend the World Premiere of the THRASS SING-A-LONG concert held at the Holy Rosary School in Johannesburg on 31 January 2008.

The purpose of the concert was to launch the "THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Resources" which will be released to the market in 2 weeks time. We were delightfully entertained by a group of talented school children chosen from various schools around Johannesburg to perform the 44 songs that make up a double CD. Each song was cleverly written to incorporate the "44 sounds and 120 main spelling choices of English, with each song focusing on one of the 44 sounds and its main spelling choices. " Quoted from the press release issued on 2 February 2008 by the THRASS UK News Media Centre.

The catchy songs with interesting lyrics were written and performed in various musical styles and dance rhythms to give children a broad knowledge of musical genres. The children’s enthusiastic portrayal of each musical style was thoroughly entertaining, especially the boys, whose Mexican Dance had the crowd cheering for more.

I am a proud supporter of THRASS due to the fact that both my children are learning to read and write through the THRASS programme. At only 4 years old, my daughter had already grasped the concept of recognising and writing letters of the alphabet with ease and enthusiasm.

I was very honoured to meet Alan Davies, the British Educational Psychologist who has pioneered the THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) synthetic phonics programme, his wife Hilary, the Australian artist, Terry Allen, who has designed all the THRASS graphics and the very talented South African composer Janine Plunkett.

Absa Bank and Pritt were the generous sponsors of the THRASS SING-A-LONG Concerts and Absa Bank is also the sponsor of the THRASS Absa TalkTogether Project. The proceeds of the concerts went to the children's cancer charity CHOC.

Absa Bank have also recently announced they intend to introduce THRASS British Synthetic Phonics Programme to 1,000 Government Schools. Read more about this and the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Resources in the following press release issued by THRASS UK News Media Centre.

At a time when I am continually surrounded by a lot of negative talk about our country, I am grateful to be able to focus my attention on positive projects such as these, especially when those who are benefitting are the children of South Africa.

If you would like to be notified when the THRASS SING-A-LONG Family Reading Resources become available click here.

To visit our THRASS online press office for more news about THRASS click here.

Cara Mullin, Editor
Posted: 5 February 2008

For more information, please visit the Kidzworld website: www.kidzworld.co.za

Source: Kidzworld

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