Former Head Teacher, J.Harvey, from a Nottingham County School wrote (2005):

“In fact, the impact of their work was seen to be immediate. Younger children began to ‘fly’, being stimulated and enthused by the way the bears allowed them, using the right combination of words, to make rapid progress up through the sequence of bears to the point where they soon overtook the performance of older children in the school.”

“The current Year 1, who have been working on the bear scheme for 2 years, have very much exceeded expectations when compared to what their baseline data would have suggested.”

“There is no doubt that the introduction of the Bear Word scheme....... has been responsible for a considerable improvement in the standards achieved by our children in reading and spelling.”

Karen Haynes, from another Nottingham City Primary School wrote (2007):

“Thank you so much for devising ‘Bear’ words for us! Our children love the format and are thrilled to receive a certificate. Wonderful resources - so time saving for us all.”

Kathy Lambert, a Nottingham City teacher has taken the bears and mice to her new primary school in Sutton-In-Ashfield. She wanted to share her thoughts with you (2008):

“What a fantastic scheme! Children learning key words and phonics together in a meaningful, structured and fun way; my children are so motivated by the high quality resources and Pop has become a permanent member of the class!”

Louise Blackburn, a Foundation teacher in Nottingham City was really pleased to hear that new resources were available that complimented ‘L&S’. She wrote (2008):

“I wish you all the very best with it - I’m sure you won’t need it though, judging on the success of the first set. I can’t believe the progress that my children have made - it’s really had a huge impact. Thank you.”

Alison Day - Principal Primary Advisor for Nottingham City L.A. wrote (2007):

“You can be justifiably proud of the high quality of these resources both in the professional rigour behind them but also in the finished quality and presentation.”

Andrea Gray, Assistant Head Teacher for Early Years

“Lapage Primary school and nursery is situated in an area of multiple deprivation. Our children are assessed at the 16 month level on the new EYFSC when they start nursery at three years of age. In September ‘07, we were introduced to the Bear words and Pip by a teacher from Nottingham and this way of teaching has improved our results beyond anything we have achieved previously. Almost 50% of our reception children achieved national average scores in reading and writing at the end of the the year and many nursery children have phonic knowledge they did not come up with in previous years. We have ‘bearly’ scratched the surface of this approach and it has made a profound impact on our teaching and learning. We know the children will do even better using the new resources designed by Tracey and Kim. There is no better feeling for a teacher than to see children enjoying their learning and succeeding”.