Susan Harris

“We need to ensure our five year olds get off to the best possible start.”

As a junior classroom teacher, Susan Harris has always been conscious of those children moving on who have not achieved a solid foundation in literacy.

“Unless children have strong foundational knowledge they are at risk of continuing to struggle with literacy through their school years. Not to mention the impact that reading difficulties can have on learning across curriculum and on them socially and emotionally.

“The BSLA is an exciting journey we are all on together – children, teachers, whānau and schools. It’s a huge learning curve, because we are thinking and doing things differently. But it’s making sense and things weren’t making sense before.”

Susan says the “strength based” principle of BSLA is really encouraging.

“Children are explicitly taught the link between sounds that make up words and the letters that spell these. They watch and listen while they are still learning, and then eagerly begin joining in when their knowledge and confidence develops. In each lesson they all move onto playing games to reinforce concepts.

“We are seeing children learning to read and write words more quickly, rather than guess a word from context, a picture or a first letter.

“I love how BSLA is not just about reading and writing words, although this is essential, but it’s also about building oral language – listening and speaking – and extending children’s vocabulary, because literacy learning needs both.

“The microcredential has been a big learning curve for both facilitators and teachers, however, the learning is extremely valuable and worth it. The resources provided are excellent.”

Susan says the support she receives has been extensive with Zoom and face-to-face workshops, and access to information, research and videos. Microcredential Programme Co-ordinator Dr Amy Scott and her lead facilitator Nicole Plummer have both made themselves available for her many questions.

“Workload is always an issue, but with all the information, lesson plans, resources, professional development support supplied, this certainly makes things easier.

“I love how this PD is about building teacher knowledge as well - they are learning more about language, which helps them to be more confident and passionate about language when they teach our tamariki.

“I’m excited about BSLA because it has also been researched in New Zealand, so we are not just taking something from another country. We are using an approach and resources that have been developed in New Zealand and that we know work with our kiwi kids.”