Ministry funding for Reading Recovery & Early Literacy Support will no longer be available from 2025.
Read more.
Since 2021, Reading Recovery has evolved to provide an early literacy support framework that supports an all-school approach to building positive and equitable outcomes for children.
Building on the success of its one-to-one approach with children, it now offers a three-tiered support framework that will enable a broader range of children to access literacy support.
The underlying concept guiding this strategy is the use of co-design teaching models that allow classroom teachers to benefit from the rich expertise of Reading Recovery teachers. Together, the teachers co-plan lessons that best suit the needs of their students.
Click on the links below to read more about how it works :
Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Support teachers are available to support class teachers with providing effective early literacy approaches to all learners, as well as contributing to the school-wide literacy strategy.
Targeted group teaching supporting children who are not progressing in their literacy learning after their first two terms at school.
One-to-one Reading Recovery supports children still not progressing after a year at school.
Reading Recovery is for children who have found learning to read and write challenging in their first year of school. There are many reasons why your child may find reading and writing difficult at first. Reading Recovery helps out the children who are making the slowest progress compared to their classmates.
Children usually make faster progress with one-to-one teaching. The Reading Recovery teacher will do a range of assessments to identify your child’s areas of strength, and areas where your child may be having difficulties. They will then design a series of lessons adapted specifically for your child.
Your child will get one-to-one attention from a specially trained teacher, to help them become a confident reader and writer. They will spend 30 minutes a day with their Reading Recovery teacher, for around 12 to 20+ weeks depending on how fast they progress. In each day's lesson, they will write a story and read story books.Most children catch up quickly with the average level of their class. A small number of children are identified for further assessment and ongoing specialist help. If this is your child, you will be a part of this process.
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari kē he toa takitini
Success is not the work of one, but the work of many
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to work together as a team to enable success in building positive outcomes for early literacy. The new support framework requires the involvement of the Reading Recovery Trainers, Tutors, teachers alongside classroom teachers and school leaders and whānau to build positive literacy outcomes for our tamariki and rangatahi.
Reading Recovery teachers are supported by Reading Recovery Tutors who work closely with the school. In addition, there are regular reports and webinars to help share learnings across the Reading Recovery network. In this way, Reading Recovery is able to adapt to the needs of learning communities, with an emphasis on shared resources.
Rather than a method of class or group instruction, Reading Recovery is an intervention that fits the individual needs of each child.
Find out more >If you would like to find out more, please get in touch with us using our Contact page below.
Hear some of our success stories.
A refreshed approach to Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Support has created widespread positive change for shy tamariki at Rānui’s Birdwood School.
A Whanganui school has seen a 37 percent increase in student achievement in the half-year since adopting an inclusive and planned approach to literacy, proving there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to teaching children how to read and write.
"The flow between quality classroom teaching, ELS groups and Reading Recovery is working really well, and allows us to cater to the diverse learning needs within our kura."
For Maryjane, Reading Recovery has seen her make excellent progress in reading, letter knowledge, spelling and writing skills - and has dramatically improved her comprehension.
Ebbett Park School’s one-to-one Reading Recovery intervention accelerates six-year-old Eifion through 17 reading levels in 20 weeks.
Six-year-old Blake has experienced a significant shift forward thanks to Reading Recovery intervention.
Seven-year-old Soren Kirkman-Jenkins’ reading has accelerated 12 levels after 18 weeks of personalised one-to-one lessons with a qualified Reading Recovery teacher.