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 four years of literacy training and beyond.
Meanwhile in Queensland...
Greg O’Keefe is LEM’s longest serving instructor and has been instrumental in establishing the program in hundreds of schools in Queensland. Greg’s extensive classroom teaching experience across all school age groups has given him an understanding of the practical aspects of implementing LEM Phonics. Greg and his wife Sue continue to be involved with the development of the program.
LEM Phonics 2020
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.
With the assistance of Greg and the other Registered Instructors, John has taken on a major review of the program called LEM Phonics 2020, introducing many improvements to simplify the teaching process and make the program more consistent. He continues to develop, instruct and promote LEM Phonics as he coordinates the production and release of our new resources.
