The Foundation for Learning and Literacy is concerned with the role literacy plays in ensuring our children become compassionate, confident, competent and creative citizens in an increasingly complex world.
Our aim is to support teachers, early childhood educators, parents and caregivers with tools that empower them to work with kids to build joy and confidence in reading and writing.
Our resources are also useful to the broader community, including educational policymakers, politicians, business leaders, and the media.
What's New
May 2026 Newsletter
News and updates from the Foundation for Learning and Literacy and our Partners.
The focus for this e-newsletter is on the Advocacy work undertaken by the Foundation, and in particular:
Touchstone 1: A fair and equitable society depends upon every citizen being able to speak, listen critically with confidence, read and write.
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Discover the Learning and Literacy Touchstones
The Foundation has developed 12 Touchstones that underpin our work and advocacy. They are our key principles, and are supported by rigorous research and evidence drawn from classrooms across Australia.
If you agree with our Touchstones, you can become a Friend of the Foundation.
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Learning and Literacy News
Read the latest news on Learning and Literacy, compiled by the Foundation team:
Teaching phonics ‘first’ is not new
We need to focus on meeting the needs of individual children in helping them learn to read rather than teaching ‘a method of reading’ (Reid, 2006, p.16). No one method can be the ‘right’ method for all children – quality teachers will draw on a diverse range of strategies and approaches to teach to the diverse needs of the children in their classrooms.
A Note About Fact Checks
The Foundation Committee has developed the following set of principles to help you evaluate information about learning and literacy.
Fact Check on Defining Effective Reading
Continued and often heated debates about how teachers and parents can best help young children learn to read are closely related to different definitions of, and understandings about, what effective reading is. This Fact Check discusses two approaches to defining effective reading and argues that it is imperative to adopt a definition of reading that privileges meaning-making.
Fact Check on What Makes for Systematic Teaching of Phonics
Some recent public commentary around learning to read and write is misleading and false. One such claim is that that all students should receive the same synthetic phonics program in the same sequence and in the same way and for the same amount of time. This is not supported by research.
Meet Our Partners
The Foundation for Learning and Literacy regularly partners with other professional associations to advocate for the importance of literature in our lives and in literacy learning.
The Foundation for Learning and Literature acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.