With increased numbers of Polish workers in the UK, schools in some areas now have a very high proportion of Polish children. THRASS UK has therefore just launched its new Polish Calendar Charts to help local children in such schools to interact with their new Polish peers. It's all so easy for teachers, parents and children to use the charts and below we tell you how.

The THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) phonics programme is used in thousands of schools and colleges in many countries and is widely acknowledged as having the potential to more than double the rate of progress for reading and spelling in English. THRASS UK has already produced Calendar Charts in many languages and now it has enlisted the help of Polish speakers in Cumbria to translate its English Calendar Chart for early language learning to produce a Polish Calendar Chart.

There are A4 and A3 printable versions of the chart and also a live interactive version recorded by Polish-speaking children from St. Joseph's Junior Catholic School and the Polish Saturday School in Luton that you can use on-line in school or at home.

Children of any age (and of course teachers and parents too) can use the chart to learn the Polish words for the 7 days, the 31 dates, the 12 months, the numbers from 1 to 20, the 10 main colours and the names of the 32 lower-case letters (and their capitals). And it's all so easy. With the interactive chart all you have to do is to click on the word or the number to hear the children's voices pronounce it and then just practice the word as many times as you need to.

Teachers, parents and older children can also use the Calendar Charts to play 'Questions & Answers' with young children, in order to develop essential speaking and listening skills, encouraging them to discuss birthdays and events by locating the days, dates and/or months and also encouraging them to become familiar with the numbers, colours and letters.

Bozena Briggs, who supports English and bilingual development for pupils for whom English is an additional language at St. Joseph's Junior Catholic School in Luton and also teaches Polish in the Polish School there, really likes the THRASS Calendar Charts. "The interactive charts are fun and easy to use at school and at home. Children's voices, bright colours and fun pictures get kids' attention straight away, they are an excellent introduction to the sounds of various languages and they make learning so easy. The charts are very handy for the language days that many schools organise to encourage children to learn foreign languages and to promote inter-culturalism."

So, if you are a teacher in a school with a large number of Polish children or a parent who has children there, why not use the new THRASS Polish Calendar Charts to help local children interact with their new Polish peers by learning some key Polish words?

You can download the printable versions of the THRASS Polish Calendar Chart from the THRASS UK website at www.thrass.co.uk/cart/cc.htm or the interactive version from www.thrass-downloads.com/ccdemo/Polish.swf.

To download and install the THRASS Polish Calendar Chart on all computers in a university or school, you will need to download and register the THRASS Phoneme Machine (Version 5) from www.phonememachine.com.

The THRASS extensive picture-based training website for schools and parents 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/teaching.htm

This Press Release in Polish

Issued by: THRASS UK News Media Centre www.thrass.co.uk/nm.htm

Mike Meade, Media Director, +44 1829 741413 Mob: +44 7970 151 738 mikemeade@thrass.co.uk

Chris Griffiths, International Development, +30 266 203 1207 chrisgriffiths@thrass.co.uk

Online version: http://www.thrass.co.uk/polish.htm
Version in Polish: http://www.thrass.co.uk/polski.htm