There is a lot happening at SPELD NSW. Across our education, clinic and infoline teams, we are developing new programs, practical resources, professional learning and services to better support schools, educators, families and the wider community.
Here is a look at what we have been working on, and what you can expect to see over the coming months.
Reflecting on our work with Budgewoi Public School
Over the past few years, it has been a real privilege to work alongside the team at Budgewoi Public School. The work has been driven particularly by the APCI dream-team Amy Quilty and Aldonnea Brown and the executive team more broadly. What has stood out throughout our partnership is the school’s genuine commitment to improving literacy outcomes and their willingness to keep learning, reflecting and refining their practice.
Our work together has focused on strengthening explicit literacy instruction through sustained professional learning, purposeful use of student data and practical support for implementation. Through regular data talks, leaders and teachers have worked together to examine student progress, identify areas of need and make informed decisions about what to teach next.
The school’s adoption and implementation of SPELL @ SPELD NSW has also been an important part of this journey. Staff have worked to build their understanding of the evidence and instructional principles behind the program, use student data to guide decisions and develop greater consistency in spelling instruction across classrooms.
Professional learning has supported this work, with a focus on explicit teaching, lesson design, modelling, guided practice, checking for understanding and providing students with purposeful opportunities to practise and succeed.
What we have valued most is the way the staff have approached the work. Their commitment has been sustained, thoughtful and always centred on improving outcomes for students. Teachers have been willing to reflect honestly on practice, try new approaches, refine routines and support one another as they work towards greater consistency across the school.
Budgewoi Public School has also made a valued contribution to our work at SPELD NSW. The expertise, feedback and practical insights of their staff helped inform the development of our fluency resources as feature in The Fluency Puzzle, ensuring these materials are grounded not only in the evidence but also in the realities of classroom practice.
We are incredibly grateful for the trust Budgewoi Public School has placed in SPELD NSW and proud of what we have achieved together. Partnerships like this reflect what we value most: working alongside schools over time, learning from one another and supporting meaningful and sustainable improvement in literacy instruction.
Looking for more sustained support for your school in 2027?
Every school is at a different point in its literacy improvement journey. Some are implementing SPELL, others are strengthening whole-school literacy practice, building staff knowledge or looking for expert support to guide their next stage of improvement.
SPELD NSW School Partnerships provide schools with more than one-off professional learning. Through ongoing access to professional learning, expert guidance, practical resources and implementation support, we work alongside schools to build staff capability and support sustainable improvement over time.
Planning your school’s literacy priorities for 2027? We would love to start a conversation about how a SPELD NSW School Partnership could support your school.
Bring SPELD NSW Parent Education to your school community
We know that schools want to build stronger partnerships with families and help parents better understand how to support their children’s learning—but finding the time and expertise to provide high-quality parent education can be challenging.
SPELD NSW is introducing a new suite of Parent Education Programs that schools and other community organisations can host for their parent communities.
Delivered by SPELD NSW, these practical, evidence-informed sessions will help parents understand how children learn, recognise when their child may need additional support and use simple, effective strategies to support learning at home.
Programs will cover topics including learning to read, supporting reading and spelling at home, understanding learning difficulties and helping children who are experiencing difficulties with literacy.
For schools, it is an easy way to provide families with trusted, practical information while strengthening the partnership between home and school.
Interested in hosting a SPELD NSW Parent Education Program in 2026 or 2027? Get in touch with us to discuss the needs of your school community.
Behind the scenes: what our team has been working on
Our education team has been busy developing new programs, resources and professional learning, as well as continuing to strengthen the support available to schools already working with SPELD NSW.
SPELL continues to grow. We are continuing to develop the program and create new assessments, professional learning and implementation tools to help schools make decisions about where students should start, use assessment data effectively and build consistent spelling instruction across classrooms
New resources for teaching syntax and sentence-level writing are in development. These resources will give teachers practical tools to explicitly and systematically build students’ knowledge of sentence structure across the primary years.
Let’s Blend is coming. Our new intervention program is designed for students who need additional targeted practice to develop accurate and automatic word reading. It combines carefully sequenced instruction, cumulative practice and practical resources that can be used in intervention settings.
Our new Reading Intervention Course is also in development. This expanded professional learning course will support teachers and interventionists to understand reading difficulties, interpret assessment information, plan targeted intervention and make evidence-informed instructional decisions.
We are creating practical tools to support schools using UFLI Foundations and Launch. These resources will help teachers select decodable readers that align with the phonics knowledge students have been taught and make more purposeful decisions about how decodable texts are used to support reading development.
Our fluency resources are expanding into the upper primary years. Building on our existing work, we are developing new fluency products for students in Years 3–6, including resources for students reading increasingly complex words and working with morphology. These resources will support schools to build accurate and fluent reading alongside vocabulary and morphological knowledge.
Short, targeted professional learning through SPELD NSW Insights. These short, targeted professional learning webinars focus on specific areas of literacy, learning and learning difficulties. Designed for different audiences, including educators, school leaders, parents and other professionals, each Insights session provides practical, evidence-informed knowledge that participants can apply in their own context. Over the coming months, look out for new Insights professional learning focused on reading intervention, spelling and other priority areas for schools and educators.
Meet our InfoLine Team
Every week, our InfoLine Team supports parents, educators and members of the community who are looking for trusted information and guidance about learning difficulties.
The team helps families understand where to start when they are concerned about their child’s learning, provides information about assessment and support options, responds to questions from educators and connects families with SPELD NSW services and other appropriate sources of support.
They also play an important role in supporting the work of our Clinic, helping families navigate enquiries, understand the assessment process and find the services and support that best meet their needs.
Behind every phone call and email is someone looking for answers and a clear next step. The InfoLine Team helps ensure families, educators and members of the community can access trusted information and practical guidance when they need it.
Belinda Dekker
Information and Referral Officer
Melinda Matthews
Information and Referral Officer
Vanessa Maher
Information and Referral Officer
Stories from our Referral Database
SPELD NSW is fortunate to have a community of experienced and dedicated tutors and allied health professionals supporting children and young people with reading and writing difficulties. In this new newsletter series, members of our Referral Database share what they have learned through their work and the SPELD NSW training and resources that support their practice.
Christa Forsyth
Practising MSL Educational Specialist and Accredited Member of the Australian Dyslexia Association
Building confidence is as important as building skills
I love doing one-to-one intervention. This concentrated, specialist intervention has taught me that a student’s motivation and confidence are two of the biggest factors in their long-term success.
Many students come to me with very low confidence in literacy and no longer see the point in continuing to try. I spend our first sessions establishing rapport and helping them understand that I will support them to improve, but that it is a team effort. I celebrate successes and am intentional about where and how I provide corrective feedback. Building confidence is as much the goal as building skills.
SPELD NSW has been invaluable in my journey into specialist intervention. Professional development and information about assessments such as DIBELS and MOTIF have helped me zero in on students’ needs. I also use the Phonic Books Catch-Up Readers, Talisman Card Games and Little Learners Love Literacy Fox Kid series. Seeing my students grow in confidence and independence with their reading and writing is my daily reward.
Barbara Leiton
Director, MultiSense Intervention
Helping every learner experience success
One of the most important things I have learned is that every child with reading and writing difficulties is unique. While students may experience similar challenges with decoding, spelling, fluency or written expression, each learner has their own profile of strengths, needs and experiences.
Explicit, structured and cumulative instruction is essential. When literacy intervention is systematic, multisensory and responsive to the student, it can improve reading and writing outcomes while also building confidence and wellbeing.
SPELD NSW resources, training and support materials have helped me provide practical and engaging intervention for students with diverse needs. One of my favourite resources is the Powerful Vowels magnetic letter tiles. Students enjoy using them to build words, explore spelling patterns and practise reading and spelling in a hands-on way.
I also value the UFLI program, which I use to support explicit instruction in phonics, word reading, spelling and sentence practice, while adapting activities to meet each student’s individual needs.
Catharine Munro
Speech Pathologist
When anxious learners begin skipping into lessons
I love working with students experiencing reading and writing difficulties. Learning to read is like learning to play the piano. For someone with a reading disability, it is not just about knowing the notes; they also need to practise the scales.
A student learns best when they feel they can succeed. SPELD NSW workshops on UFLI and reading fluency introduced me to techniques for keeping confidence levels high. Interleaved practice, where learners receive repeated exposure to a new rule rather than having to master it before moving forward, is now a core concept for many of the children with whom I work.
SPELD NSW also introduced me to UFLI’s virtual blending board. It allows learners to read word after word with only small changes, giving them an experience of successful word reading after they may have struggled for a long time.
I have seen children who began lessons feeling anxious and demoralised eventually skip into the room. It is extremely satisfying work.
Supporting Access through SPELD NSW Scholarships
Improving access to assessment and support for children and young people with learning difficulties remains an important part of our work.
Through the SPELD NSW Teacher Scholarship Program, funded by an anonymous and very generous donor, we are able to provide passionate interventionists and teachers access to our specialist training and professional learning programs.
We are continuing to explore opportunities to grow the reach of the Scholarship Program through donations, partnerships and philanthropic support so that more schools, teachers, children and families can access the help they need.
What should Schools be Looking Out For?
There is plenty more to come from SPELD NSW over the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.
Look out for new Parent Education Programs, SPELL implementation resources and support, the release of Let’s Blend, new tools for selecting and using decodable readers, practical resources for teaching syntax and sentence-level writing, new fluency resources for older students, the expanded Reading Intervention Course and new Insights professional learning sessions.
We are also introducing SPELD NSW School Partnerships for schools looking for more sustained professional learning, expert guidance and implementation support.
Our focus is on creating practical, evidence-informed programs, resources and professional learning that help schools turn the evidence into effective practice and improve outcomes for students.
