This has been Letterland's best year EVER and we wanted to share a few of our highlights with the Letterland Family. Read on to find out about some of the things that have made us smile this year!
2019 in Numbers
95 titles printed*
66 countries sold to
45 blog articles
29, 132 social media followers**
45 free downloads
January
We started 2019 by launching our brilliant new Fix-it Phonics (Second Edition) range for Levels 1 and 2, which includes updated Teacher's Guides, software and a scan to listen along feature with all resources. Additionally, we were delighted to make our new web-based software, Phonics Online, available to Letterland users all around the world.
While the Letterland HQ celebrated our new launches (and spent a little too much time 'testing' the games on Phonics Online), our Director of Training, Lesley White, visited Qatar and Lebanon and met loads of enthusiastic teachers who couldn't wait to attend her training sessions!
February
In February, our Russian Sales Agent, Oksana, officially confirmed that Letterland was now a partner of the Russian Dyslexia Foundation - brilliant!
Lesley continued her travels and visited Letterland teachers in Saudi Arabia and the US.
March
The Letterland HQ team headed to London Book Fair to check out what's been going on in the publishing industry, attend some (very important) meetings, and say hello to some old friends!
Across the pond, our US trainers had their annual Trainer's Retreat where everyone had a good catch up, did some team-bonding exercises, and made plans for the rest of the year. Everyone was particularly excited to get their teeth into the new Grade Three and Intervention materials.
April
In April we announced that we had started The Letterland Blog! Having this new space to share ideas, resources and inspiration has been such fun for everyone at Letterland HQ - and we hope that you have all enjoyed it too.
The day also finally came when Letterland Intervention launched! We knew lots of people had been waiting for these resources, so we were really pleased to see so many people enjoying it throughout the rest of this year.
April also kicked off the start of #LetterlandDay season, meaning the Letterland HQ marketing team got inundated with ADORABLE photos of all your little Letterlanders.
Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in North Carolina, US, held their 6th annual Letterland Day at Pullen Park and estimated that around 14,000 people attended! Keller Independent School District (KISD) in Texas, US, also held their 2nd annual Letterland Day, which even included a Peter Puppy's adoption center.
In the meantime, Lesley hadn't slowed down with her international training sessions, visiting both Singapore and Jordan in April.
May
The Letterland HQ team headed out to the US at the start of May to meet up with our US team, visit some amazing schools and check out the Letterland Days at Tweetsie. Lesley headed off the Hong Kong and China, visiting Beijing and Shanghai - and even had a catch up with our friends at Xi'an Joatong University Press. Once the team were back in the UK, we were delighted to have some friends from Pearson South Africa visit us!
This month also brought some incredible Letterland Days hosted by Swain County Schools and Kannapolis City Schools in North Carolina. Check out this video that a parent made of the Kannapolis City Schools' first annual Letterland Day!
One of our favourite events of the year also occurred in May, when Highbury Preparatory School in South Africa held an election to determine the President of Letterland. We thought this was a fantastic cross-curricular activity used to teach their students about elections and voting!
Finally, on our third launch of the year, we were delighted to release Letterland Grade Three! It's been so exciting to see little learners that have been using Letterland since pre-K be able to continue using our resources into Grade Three.
June
After a super busy month, everyone was glad to be back in the Letterland HQ offices for June - including Clever Cat! She popped in to help us out with customer service, gave a few presentations and ate all of our cake!
As schools started to break up for summer, our fantastic Russian Sales Agent, Oksana, started a 'My Summer with Letterland' competition - and we absolutely loved seeing all the photos that she got sent.
July
The Letterland HQ team had our fair share of feel-good moments in July. We made friends with the incredible people at Koh Tao Not For Profit School and were even able to help them out by donating Letterland resources to their classrooms. We also got in contact with the Mebane Foundation and found out all about the great work they're doing by providing Letterland products to Davie County Schools in North Carolina - they even wrote a guest blog post telling us all about it!
In July we also introduced Letterland's Classroom of the Month Award! We started with the wonderful Mrs D and Mrs J's Prep Class from Park Ridge State School in Queensland, Australia, and have been loving the monthly awards for the rest of the year.
To round off a lovely month, we celebrated the 91st birthday of Lyn Wendon, the founder of Letterland!
August
In August, our Sales & Marketing Director, Tom, headed out to China to sign a contract with Xi'an Joatong University Press (XJUP) to extend our license agreement with them to include the new Fix-it Phonics (Second Edition) resources. We love working with XJUP so this was exciting for everyone involved!
In other August news, we saw our favourite Tweet of the year (see below) and Lesley headed to Jordan for some more training sessions.
September
Throughout September, we were delighted to hear how many students enjoyed 'Letterland Alive', a production put on by Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina. Well done to everyone involved!
Oksana, on behalf of Letterland Russia, hosted an online conference that more than 600 teacher registered their interest for! They discussed classroom management and environment, and even had Lesley as a guest speaker.
Lesley had a busy month as she also headed off to the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia.
October
October was a crazy month for Letterland! We hosted our first ever webinar, launched the Letterland Dress Up page, celebrated our birthday (with a pretty wild party at Letterland HQ) and headed off to Frankfurt Book Fair.
We also had a couple of touching moments with members of the international Letterland Family.
Mr Kweon and his family, from Nawon (who license Letterland products in Korea) came over to the UK and were able to reunite with Lyn Wendon, having not seen her for many years. Believe us when we say it was an emotional moment for everyone in the room!
We also had the pleasure of meeting teachers from Goldfish Preschool, Letterland's Classroom of the Month for September. Coming all the way from Chile, they brought us a load of Letterland photos and crafts they had made in their classrooms!
November
By far the loveliest moment of November was when Letterland HQ got in contact with Tar River Elementary School, from North Carolina, who were hosting a Letterland Day for their special education students. Find out more about that special day here.
December
December can mean only one thing at Letterland... The 12 Days of Letterland! We've loved watching you all have fun with our free downloads - and hope that you get even more use out of them over the festive season. What a lovely way to end a fantastic year!
This year wouldn't have been so great without every single member of the Letterland Family - so a huge thank you and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! See you in 2020!
*Including reprints. **Across Letterland HQ, Letterland Russia, Letterland Australia, Letterland Singapore and Letterland Taiwan social media accounts.