Looking back to look forward
Happy New Year
We want to take this opportunity to wish all of our followers and supporters a Happy New Year! We hope that the festive season filled you up with the things that energise you for a happy and healthy new year ahead.
2023 was certainly a very busy year for our little team of volunteers and we have enjoyed some downtime as we gear up for another big year ahead.
With a new Minister (and Associate Minister) in charge and interest in the science of learning, the science of reading and structured literacy really taking off - we see the continued need for high quality, independent policy analysis and advice to keep the Ministry of Education, Teaching Council, ITEs and the plethora of other taxpayer funded education bodies on their toes so that they are delivering for the teachers, students and taxpayers of Aotearoa New Zealand.
We also hope to be able to provide practical support to teachers and parents, through webinars, events and other resources on our website, and possibly a Sharing Best Practice conference in Whangārei, Northland/Te Tai Tokerau (details to come).
As you know we are a 100% volunteer run organisation with no benefactors or private business interests. If you would like to support our work, please consider making a donation or purchasing one of the Digital Toolkits from our Shop.
Looking Back
We wanted to take a look back on 2023 to remember and share the many positive developments there were towards our shared goal of a 100% literate New Zealand, combining the art of teaching with the science of reading:
1 - Massive appetite from teachers across the country for learning more about the the science of reading and Structured Literacy and sharing of best practice at grassroots level - for example, sell out events such as Sharing Best Practice in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland; Literacy Symposia in Christchurch and Auckland; Building a Literate Community Conference; ongoing growth of Facebook Groups; uptake of Ministry funded PLD.
2 - Critical mass of schools having adopted Structured Literacy - at least quarter of all schools.
3 - Growing sector leadership to drive and sustain change - for example, RTLB Cluster 25 and RTLB Cluster 28, numerous Kahui Ako prioritising Structured Literacy PLD.
4 - New Government commitment to support all primary schools to implement Structured Literacy instruction over next three years - previous Govt also supported mandating structured literacy.
5 - Commitment from new Government to stop funding Reading Recovery and support Structured Literacy intervention instead.
6 - Substantial media coverage on literacy - the science of reading and structured literacy have entered the public lexicon.
7 - Diffusion of Structured Literacy in ESOL, te reo matatini, literacy learning in kaupapa Māori and Māori-Medium settings, and other language medium settings (such as Samoan and Tongan) - for example as evidenced by work of Mahi by Mahi in kura around the country and the work of the Samoan Bilingual Team at Robertson Road School.
8 - Spread of Structured Literacy into intermediate and high school settings - we continue to get inquiries from intermediate and secondary schools on how they can upskill their staff and help their students improve their literacy skills. More and more PLD providers are offering training and support in this area as well. There is also a dedicated SL Facebook Group for older learners.
9 - Major international progress we can take inspiration from in embedding the science of reading into teacher training and school curricula and classroom practice - for example, Australian Open Letter on School Reform, new Ontario Language Curriculum, banning of three cueing in many states in USA, the Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn Catalyst change programme.
Looking forward
If you have not already done so, we encourage you to have a read of our draft policy White Paper we released just ahead of Christmas.
The aim of the document is to provide practical policy implementation advice to the new Minister (and Ministry) on how to best support their goals of embedding structured literacy instruction in all schools, and how to improve the overall teacher training system to ensure new teachers receive the most up-to-date knowledge on literacy instruction. We set out a comprehensive set of proposals, with 25 consultation questions. These further develop our original 2020 Manifesto and our 2021 Call to Action.
We invite submissions on our draft proposals till 17 February. We are particularly keen for practical suggestions on how the proposals could be improved. We are happy to arrange virtual meetings to run through any substantive feedback you or your group may have. Please contact us by email liftingliteacyaotearoa@gmail.com to arrange a time. We will then finalise our paper and send it to the Minister and Ministry of Education later in February or early March.
You can read the paper, including a summary here.
