The next step in improving children’s literacy in South Australia

A fresh focus on children’s literacy to ensure their lifetime learning capacity, is the basis of a refreshed Literacy Guarantee developed by the Malinauskas Labor Government to support parents, teachers and students.

The guarantee will be supported by an expert advisory group, to improve the overall literacy of South Australian students in public schools.

The work will be in addition to the support already provided to schools, particularly through the Department for Education’s successful Literacy Guarantee Unit, which provides intensive literacy coaching for classroom teachers.

Under the new Literacy Guarantee a range of work will be undertaken including expanding the focus of literacy coaches to support schools with all aspects of reading, a stronger focus on literacy in preschool, developing additional resources for teachers and providing free online support and resources for parents to use from birth onwards.

The program of work will also lead to the:

• Launch of a Reading Academy to support early career teachers in teaching reading – focused on providing mentoring and resources to ensure teachers start their career with the strongest foundations to teach reading
• Increased professional learning in literacy for teachers at all levels of schooling
• Upskilling of preschool teachers in literacy using the department's early years literacy guidelines
• Provision of free, online resources for parents to help their children build their literacy skills

The initiatives will begin at the start of 2026 and will be fully rolled out during next year. This work is currently being scoped by a principal who is on assignment with the department and will be targeted at schools with high numbers of graduate teachers, with the program extended more broadly in following years.

The work will be in addition to continued phonics screening, which is a check done with all Year 1 students in public schools. It is a short one-on-one assessment of 40 words, which measures how well students are learning to decode and blend letters into sounds.

This work also builds on the new English Curriculum being rolled out, which has a stronger focus on developing a love of reading to ensure children consistently read throughout their schooling.

The 2024 data showed a trend of significant improvement since it commenced in 2017, with 70 per cent of students scored at or above the expected achievement score.

Quotes

Attributable to Blair Boyer

South Australia has led the way in literacy for this country.

We introduced a Year 1 Phonics check in 2017, under former Education Minister Susan Close, years ahead of anyone else, with some states only beginning a trial from next year.

The improvements we saw as part of the checks, were seen across several student groups, including Aboriginal students, students who speak English as an additional language or dialect, and students in country schools.

We are continuing to build on that work and ensure new teachers have the skills and resources they need as they enter the workforce.

Literacy is a core focus of early learning teaching so we can ensure we are setting up our students with a strong foundation for continued learning. If we get the basics right, it makes it easier for students as they progress through school.

Attributable to Kidman Park Primary School Principal Amanda Walker

Over time Kidman Park Primary School has made a massive shift in our approach to literacy which has seen significant improvements in our phonics screening results.

Reading is fundamental to every core skill and improvements in this area gives children confidence in what they can achieve.

As a school, we have been working with the Department’s Literacy Guarantee Unit over the past 12 months, with teachers having professional development and mentoring which has been really valuable.

Our families are also keen to be engaged so the development of parent resources will be a great help as they are keen to access tools that can help them, help their child.