STOP PRESS:  LITERACY WORKSHOP TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND SEPTEMBER 2010

SEE 'TOURS PAGE' FOR DETAILS

"The Toe by Toe Programme is helping the students I see tremendously..."

Vicki Wakefield, Whangerai Boys' High School

"We find Toe by Toe a valuable resource..."

Carole Wright, Head of Jun School, Cathedral Grammar, Christchurch - Dec 2008

A Proud Grandad writes:  "A Grandad's Testimony"

Toe by Toe in New Zealand 

Presently, apart from the U.K. and Ireland, TBT is most widely used in New Zealand.  Christine Davis, mother of a dyslexic boy in Auckland, was recommended TBT by her sister (RTLB at Tongariro School) in 2002.  Christine contacted Keda to find out more information and was astonished to discover that Keda could describe her son's reading problem perfectly.  Previously, no one had ever suggested that he may have had dyslexia.  Since then, she has worked tirelessly to promote TBT in NZ.  The fact that it is now used in about 500 schools, adult learning centres and polytechnics in the country is largely down to her efforts. 

It may come as a surprise to some that the ‘home’ of Reading Recovery should have taken to this phonics-based scheme so enthusiastically. 

However, despite its burgeoning reputation in the field, NZ still has huge literacy problems.  A study in 2000 showed that while it has a relatively high proportion of students at the highest level of achievement in reading literacy (19 percent), it also has a relatively high proportion at the lowest level (14 percent).  As a recent Epoch Times article: School Literacy Levels Continue to Dive (Oct 14th 2008) points out:

 “International surveys show that reading achievement levels in New Zealand are spiraling downward.  New Zealand led the world in reading achievement in 1970. It fell to thirteenth place in the 2001 study and then to twenty-fourth in 2006, according to an international study carried out every few years.”

 The full Epoch Times article can be found at:

 http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/new-zealand/nz-education-schools-literacy-pirls-5631.html

An important and unique aspect of Toe by Toe is that it has been designed to be used by non specialists so any literate person is qualified to act as a TBT ‘coach’.  For this reason, the scheme works wonderfully well in ‘buddy schemes’.  For example, Rutherford College is a secondary school in Auckland with a high proportion of Maori and Pacific Islander students.   Sue Devitt, RTLB teacher at Rutherford, was so concerned about reading standards that she decided to initiate a ‘buddy scheme’ to attack the problem.  Initially, Sue chose 20 students she felt would benefit the most from intensive literacy work.  Half of them were assigned to work with teacher aides and the other half were assigned Year-13 buddies for daily 20-minute sessions using Toe by Toe.  The results have been outstanding.  Sue Devitt:

“We are also very impressed with the reading tutors, not only because of what they have chosen to do to support students in need, but also because of the huge gains in reading our students are making under their guidance. I am very proud to be working with a very special group of Year 13 students, who are making a real difference for students in our school".  Newspaper article on the Rutherford College project.

Other hugely successful TBT projects are in operation at Tongariro School, Rotorua Girls High School, Waihi Preparatory School, Waitaki Boys High School, Opunake Primary School, Taradale Intermediate School, Waipawa Primary School, Wesley Intermediate and Whangarei Boys High School to name just a few.  Perhaps the most successful project, though, is at Linwood College in Christchurch where individual tuition with a support staff worker each day has been the key to its success.  The college has produced a highly professional and thorough report on their groundbreaking literacy work with the following conclusion:

Linwood College Report Conclusion:  Students who have not learned to read well enough to cope with high school level material need remedial help.  The best kind of help students who can not decode can have according to worldwide research and government inquiries is phonics-based.  It is time to end the old phonic wars and teach a completely balanced reading programme.  Ideally systematic phonics should be a key part of a balanced reading programme at pre-school and new entrant level but failing that a synthetic phonics programme like Toe by Toe is one effective way of improving decoding ability and giving delayed readers a chance of a useful and satisfying life.

 To see the parts of the report relevant to Toe by Toe please click on:

Linwood College Project

Relevant statistics and further details of the use of TBT in New Zealand are available on the ‘Best Practice’ and ‘Reading Age Statistics’ pages of this website.


Link to Toe By Toe website