Proud of our SMALL by MIGHTY Structured Literacy Team

It's term 4 - as schools ramp up to get things checked off PLD slows down and its a time for me to reflect on goals for the year and plan for the continuation of this rollercoaster ride in 2026 as a business owner and PLD Provider.

First, I’m reflecting with gratitude on an incredible year with Structured Literacy

Joining schools in a shared vision

From the outset our intention has been to work with schools—not just deliver “to” them. The schools that have chosen us this year align so beautifully with our vision and values of what PLD should look like: deeply collaborative, responsive, evidence-informed, teacher-centred, and sustainable.

We deliberately set out to work with schools that recognise the complexity of teaching literacy in today’s world, and are committed to building lasting capability—not just a “one-off workshop”. Our website describes this clearly: “Our PLD packages are tailored… we implement sustainable practice shifts by providing coaching and mentoring, nurturing literacy leaders within schools.”

Through working with so many schools in 2025 I’ve seen again and again that when a school’s leadership, teachers and support staff share that commitment, real progress happens.

Highlights of our approach

Looking back, several features of our programme stand out as being key to this success:

• Evidence-based foundations: We anchor all our PLD in the research-primer of the “science of reading” and the pillars of Structured Literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

• Tailored to the context: We didn’t offer a “one size fits all” model. Schools chose us knowing we would come alongside, assess where they were at, and design a schedule and delivery that made sense for their team, students and timetabling. As our website explains: “If you have more than 8 teachers enrolled … we can come to you and tailor our delivery to cater to where you are on your SL journey.”

• Sustainable growth, not just a spike: One of our strongest commitments is to build capacity so that teachers grow as literacy leaders, able to reflect, adapt, monitor and sustain improvement. We emphasise mentoring and coaching alongside workshops.

• Collaborative, responsive partnerships: The best schools we worked with this year embraced not just the “what” of Structured Literacy, but the “how”—they engaged their whole team (leaders, teachers, teacher-aides, literacy support) and kept conversations alive between sessions, sharing what was working, what needed tweaking, and learning together.

The types of schools that flourished

It’s been fascinating to observe the common threads among the schools that chose to partner with us:

• They were schools committed to lifting literacy achievement, often in complex contexts—schools who recognised that foundational literacy skills matter deeply for all learners, including Māori and Pasifika learners, and those needing intervention.

• They were schools willing to invest time, thinking and change—not just tick a box. They wanted shifts in pedagogy, not just delivery of workshops.

• They had leadership teams who actively supported teacher learning, allocated time for reflection, made space for follow-up, and regarded PLD as part of the school’s strategic literacy plan rather than an add-on.

• They embraced a growth-mindset: willing to ask “What are we doing now? What might we need to do differently? How can we monitor our children’s progress so we know our shifts are working?”

• They valued partnership—seeing Blend Learning not simply as an external trainer, but as a collaborator, coach and mentor on their journey.

What the year taught us

Working with 47 schools and over 500 teachers has deepened my convictions in a few key ways:

1. Change takes time, but it is possibleShifting literacy pedagogy is not overnight work. But by working with school teams, sustaining the conversation, revisiting practice, and embedding ongoing support, we saw observable shifts in teacher confidence, planning, and classroom practice.

2. The “six pillars” matterMany schools had focused on one piece (for example phonics) but less on how it fits with vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing. Our model emphasises the full set of pillars. Schools that embraced all of them saw more integrated gains.

3. Teacher agency is keyWhen teachers feel they own the change— when they reflect, adapt, test, refine— the work becomes their work, not “the PLD” work. That leads to sustained change.

4. Leader support makes the differenceThe schools where literacy leaders were active (monitoring, supporting, facilitating change) advanced faster. It confirmed that for PLD to work long-term, it cannot live solely in workshops—it must be lived in classrooms, supported by leadership.

5. Sustainability must be embeddedWe have moved more and more into the realm of building internal capability: coaching, mentoring, peer-support, communities of practise. Only by doing this do we avoid “once-off workshop” syndrome and move toward long-term impact.

Looking ahead

As we end 2025 and look toward 2026, I’m excited. The momentum we’ve built this year across nearly 50 schools and 500 teachers fuels our belief that this work matters. We will continue to:

• Partner with schools who share the vision of sustainable, evidence-based literacy improvement.

• Tailor PLD so it meets each school where they are, honours their context, and builds internal capability.

• Focus not just on learning “what to do” but on “how to do it well, how to refine it, how to monitor it, how to embed it”.

• Support leadership and teacher teams to build literacy-learning cultures that sustain beyond any one intervention.

Final word

To all the schools and teachers who have trusted us with their SL journey this year—thank you. Your commitment, your openness to change, your willingness to learn alongside us has made 2025 a landmark year. I’m grateful for every workshop, coaching session, conversation, reflection and breakthrough.

Here’s to the journey ahead. Because when teachers grow, our tamariki  grow—and that feels like the real reward.