Targeted SLA with a focus on Writing Year 7-10 PLD Targeted SLA with a focus on Writing Year 7-10 PLD

The Ministry is funding professional learning and development (PLD) to support targeted teaching with a focus on writing for Year 7-10 teachers.

This PLD will support teachers to develop and use deep expertise in structured literacy approach (SLA) elements, effective writing pedagogy, targeted teaching approaches and the application of explicit teaching principles for Years 7-10 students.

The PLD includes approaches to targeted teaching for students with dyslexia and other literacy and language learning difficulties, assessment practices and how to use tools to monitor progress and will support participants in leading sustainable changes in teaching practices and building in-school capability.

This PLD will commence in Term 2, 2026.

One Year 7-10 teacher supporting literacy acceleration from any intermediate, area, composite or secondary school can enrol to attend this PLD.  The Ministry will contact eligible schools directly with information about this opportunity and how to enrol.

This PLD will be offered through approved providers who have been quality-assured by the Ministry.

The PLD will be delivered over four school terms and comprises the following: 

• Core delivery: 5 full day facilitated workshops per teacher 

• Ongoing coaching and mentoring (over 4 terms) 

Alignment with the English learning area and elements of SLA targeted teaching for Years 7-10 with a focus on writing The PLD may involve face-to-face and/or virtual/remote learning and will run in cohorts although individual providers will offer different dates for delivery. Providers have different approaches to how they structure the PLD. We encourage schools and teachers to review these approaches to select the provider that best meet their needs.

Dates for upcoming cohorts are:

Please note that to evaluate the effectiveness of this PLD, facilitators will be collecting information from teachers. All teachers completing this PLD will need to:  

• Collect impact assessment data with help from your PLD facilitator/s 
• Complete pre-PLD and post-PLD teacher surveys 

Any information given will remain anonymous and aggregated so it can be used to assess the overall impact of this PLD.

The Ministry will be contacting eligible schools directly with information about this opportunity and inviting them to enrol with a provider of their choice.

If you like to enrol one staff member from your school, please follow the link to the list of approved providers below and enrol with them directly.

PLD costs will be paid directly to the provider by the Ministry of Education.

Teacher release funding will be provided for the 5 full day facilitated workshops and will be paid directly to schools and kura after the workshop component has fully been completed.