"I like this place for next year because it gave me a lot of improvement of myself. Before, I could not read and write but now the method we use, it’s very good for us because it gives us improvement in reading and writing. The phonograms help us with spelling and reading. We do handwriting; we improve handwriting. And we do listening. Before, we didn’t know how to listen – a, ay, ar, aw – but now we know the phonograms very well. We hope next year we will continue the course. I teach my six-year-old the phonograms. The school think it’s good because she improved. The teacher called me to show me the phonograms she uses. It was the same, but in a different way. She gave me the phonograms to use with my daughter, but ours are better." (Somali mother)

"Before, I tried another college and they put me in a higher class but I did not know how to write and read, and when I came here you taught how to say the ABC – the phonograms – and now I know how to manage to write and read. When I break the words, then I learn to read, and I put the alphabet together and then that makes me try to write. I just learn slowly, time to time each day. You teach me how to put the base words together. I read some stories from my children’s books. I try to read some stories in the newspaper – The Daily Mail – and the letters from my children’s school, and the Council, and the doctors. Before, I always asked my brother and sisters to help me to read. Now, I manage to read and I feel very grateful. It makes me feel comfortable to come here because in here, all women I can trust, and the teachers in here, they are helpful. I think all the women feel the same thing I feel if they can’t read and write." (Chinese/Vietnamese mother).

"If you understand this, reading is easy for you." (Eritrean mother)

One of our best examples of success concerns a learner from Madeira who had hardly had any schooling at all. She commented that one evening she thought she would try to write out her address without looking at a copy. Having developed a beautiful style of handwriting already, she just needed to focus on the phonograms. As she lives on the Loughborough estate in Brixton, her address is quite complex, but she exclaimed with great joy, "And I couldn’t believe it – I could do it!"