Welcome to our first e-newsletter for 2026. Please share widely amongst your networks and suggest they become a Friend. They can learn more about the Foundation through the promotional video in the header.

A big welcome to the profession to those starting teaching this year. You are joining a profession that makes a big difference to our world. The FFLL is here to support you.

There are signs that teacher judgement and teacher professionalism are being undermined.

 Teachers and school leaders across Australia have just been involved in professional learning days to set up the new school year. This practice is not new, and it has been a highly valued part of the start of the school year. Recent changes to the professional learning undertaken this year have seen several Australian schooling sectors, as outlined by John Cole in an article below, mandate instructional methods that include scripted lessons, and tightly defined pedagogical “non-negotiables”, where teachers have little room to adjust their teaching to meet the needs of the range of students they teach. John Cole goes on to say, “How does a teacher consider and value their professional choices and expertise in a school where materials and approaches are directed from a centralised source? At what point does teacher professional judgement yield to head office directions to use “these slides” and present with “these methods”?”

The Foundation for Learning and Literacy strongly advocates for school leaders and teachers to exercise their professional judgement to select the pedagogies and resources that will meet the individual needs of their students ensuring all students show growth in their learning and in addition, are able to use what they learn across a wide range of contexts.
Two of our touchstones address this:
Touchstone 6- Learners’ experiences are different, their environments are different, their ways of thinking are different. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to literacy learning does not work. Every learner is unique.
Touchstone 10- Teachers teach children and young people. Programs don’t.

Read more about Touchstone 6 and 10 here. 
The Literacy and Curriculum tab has many resources. Friends may like to access here 

We have curated the following with a focus on supporting school leaders, literacy coaches, teachers and pre-service teachers

• Cole, J. Setting the Standards: who chooses ‘best practice’? (2026, February 3). Edu Research Matters
• Ashenden, D. How we can all fix NAPLAN. Starting now. (2025, December 8).  Edu Research Matters.
• Ewing, R. Key principles for designing early years literacy programs

FFLL advocates for the provision of high quality and inclusive literature for every Australian preschool and classroom. We have two new resources to help you select literature for children:

•  For educators 
•  For parents and carers 

Past featured articles and resources can be accessed in the newsletters archive.

Yours in literacy,
The Executive and General Committees
Foundation for Learning and Literacy

FFLL partnered with a large group of like-minded organisations in 2022, 2023, 2024 and in 2025 to bring you our symposia series We all like a good story. 
We look forward to collaborating with our partners in 2026.

 
Partner Activity
ALEA Tas South is hosting an online zoom with Robyn English Using Authentic Texts to Support the Teaching of Writing on Thursday 12th March, 3:30-4:30pm AEDT
Register Now!

The National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature NACL has an easy to navigate website with great resources for teachers and school librarians.

Copyright Agency Reading Australia has a wealth of resources teachers and preservice teachers will find very useful to support the tailoring of their planning to meet the needs and interests of their students.

 PETAA is offering a one day workshop: Explicit teaching of language: grammar, spelling and vocabulary on Tuesday 24 March from 9.00 am until 3.00 pm with Joanne Rossbridge, Rachael Hill and Christine Topfer at The Hills Grammar School, Kenthurst in Sydney.

Our FFLL Socials and News

Please join us on LinkedIn here .

Join the FFLL Instagram here .

There is a large range of current items related to all areas of literacy and learning in our NEWS area.

Want to get in touch with us with your ideas? Write to
learningandliteracy2020@gmail.com

The members of the Foundation for Learning and Literacy acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners of the country that we call Australia.

We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.

Copyright © Foundation for Learning and Literacy. All Rights Reserved