From 5 – 9 June the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg plays host to a five-day workshop, ‘Time for a New Phonics Approach for Teaching English in Africa?’, and what started off as a workshop to provide an opportunity for local teachers and educators in South Africa to debate issues surrounding the teaching of English synthetic phonics has seen an unprecedented number of enquiries for places from all over the continent of Africa and beyond. Many in the world of education are welcoming THRASS as heralding the start of a new era in the teaching of English.