LEM Phonics

History of LEM Phonics

Foundations

Evelyn Garrard taught as a teacher in Adelaide before spending several years teaching in Papua New Guinea. In 1984 she joined Light Educational Ministries, where she encountered intensive phonics in the classroom through Romalda Spalding’s Writing Road to Reading. Whilst the principles and foundation of the Spalding program were solid, Evelyn encountered various needs arising in student learning, largely related to the Australian accent. She and the LEM team began developing changes in the sounds, phonograms and resources, which led to the launching of LEM Phonics in 1997.

International Growth

Since its inception LEM Phonics has spread with excellent success across Australia, and has also been successful with thousands of international students in China, India, Papua New Guinea and Africa. The available resources have expanded to become a comprehensive intensive phonics program, taking students through the first five years of literacy training and beyond.

LEM Phonics 2020

Before her death in 2023, Evelyn retired in 2017 and handed the baton to her son, John Garrard. John had worked closely with Evelyn since the inception of LEM Phonics - reviewing, editing and designing the LEM Phonics materials utilising his experience in the fields of graphic design, web design and communication. John and his wife Linda have also taught their four children at home using LEM Phonics.

John has created the current version of the program (LEM Phonics 2020), introducing many improvements to simplify the teaching process and make the program more consistent.

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