We started many years ago as two teachers with Sinclair ZX81 computers. We have been listening to teachers and writing software ever since. Our Starspell is now used in over 16,000 schools and is the country's best-known spelling assistant.

Software should be there to help teach, not take over. That is what our programs do. Now the interactive whiteboard brings computing to assist the teacher at the front of the class.

For secondary pupils, StarFrench develops Starspell concepts as a tool for word-level work in a modern foreign language.

We are members of BESA, the British Educational Suppliers Association, and of ESPA, the Educational Software Publishers group

Our long-term collaborator, Margaret Hughes, is an Educational Consultant and a specialist in the learning of literacy. She is co-author of 'The Development of Independent Reading' (Guppy & Hughes, Open University Press, Milton Keynes 1999), and of