Phonemetrack Appraisal

• Name of school:
  Gorse Hall Primary School.
• Name of person doing the appraisal and position:
  Joanne Sandilands S.S.A.
• Name of software and company:
  Phoneme Tracker. SEMERC
• Brief description of the software:
  To raise phonic awareness. Pupils working with words removing phoneme from work to make another word.
• Year group and number of pupils using the software:
  5 pupils. Mixed years 2-6.
• How often do the pupils use the software:
  2 pupils twice a week, 3 pupils once.
• Type of difficulties experienced by the pupils:
  One pupil is dyslexic, one on the autistic spectrum, overall general literacy skills problems.
• Do you find the software easy to use?
  Easy to access but difficult to exit the software.
• Your view of the software e.g. graphics, speech and area(s) covered by the software:
  Younger pupils liked the graphics but the others complained of it being'babyish'.
• Who supervises the delivery of the programme?
  The programme is supervised by a Specialist Support Assistant.
• Pupil's view of the programme:
  Year 6 pupil: Thought the characters were funny but felt it was aimed at younger pupils.
  
  Year 5 Pupil: Enjoyed the game initially but soon became bored. Liked the look of the characters but found it 'very difficult to hear the words'.
  
  Another Year 5 pupil: Wanted the game to do much more, quite slow. He said he enjoyed the games where you have to catch something or knock something down.
• What areas of expertise does the programme cover and does it marry with other programmes used?
  Found it worked well with PAT Beginners. Could be used as a freestanding programme. Good repetition but with more able pupils needs to be able to move on more quickly.
• Any improvements that could be made or any other comments:
  The speech needs to be improved, made clearer and not in a character voice. Pupils with an auditory weakness may experience problems. If the pupil requires auditory reinforcement the voice is still the same and the pupil has difficulty. Three of the pupils experienced auditory difficulty. Being able to escape the programme, the facility to do this needs to be more prominently displayed.
• Progress made by the pupils:
  Phoneme Tracker was used alongside other programmes. The pupils did progress.
• Would your school continue to use the programme?
  Would have a resource but not used as a major contributor.