ABOUT THE CREATOR OF THE HOP ALONG LEARNING PROGRAMME
Publisher: Programme Director
The programme was developed by Lorraine Powell-Cadette. She was born in England and spent most of primary school years in London. In 1981 her family moved to Trinidad and Tobago where she continued her education. She began teaching in 1993 and taught for approximately 13 years in the primary school system in Trinidad. During which time she attended Corinth Teachers’ College and after earning a diploma she was one of 5 students awarded a scholarship. On scholarship at The University of the West Indies she pursued a degree in primary school education with a focus on Social Studies and Language. After earning a first class honours and two other awards at UWI she returned to teaching at the Primary school level.
It was before beginning university, when she faced a class of about 20 standard three students up to the age of 13 who could not read that she realised just how severe the reading problems were in the Caribbean. After leaving UWI she began a remedial reading class in the primary school.
But then she realised that too many children throughout the school could not read and that was when she requested a 1st year infant class so that she could help to prevent reading problems at the foundation level.
It was whilst teaching the infant level that she found that none of the reading materials presented to her were the most appropriate for the students and so she set about creating her own programme. The result was the HOP ALONG READERS. Now all children can benefit from this easy to use and child-friendly programme of books and flashcards.
In 2006 Lorraine left teaching and established POWELL HOUSE PUBLISHING LTD. Through this company she was able to dedicate herself to the development of a wider range of learning materials for the young child. Included in her efforts have been numerous workshops with teachers, parents and community groups to provide fundamental advice on helping to lay a strong learning foundation with preschool and infant level students.