Children from Aotearoa New Zealand are falling behind other countries in literacy measures. There is an ongoing lack of equity in student outcomes, particularly for Māori and Pacific children. Doing nothing is not an option, schools need effective ways to address the decline in reading.

The Reading Together® programme, Te Pānui Ngātahi, (Reading Together®) is a research-based, four-session workshop programme that supports parents and whānau to effectively raise their children’s reading achievement.

Reading Together® is a proven programme that helps parents, children, school leadership, teachers and the wider community. From participating in Reading Together® multiple valued outcomes occur for children, parents and whānau as well as for school and library communities.

The programme also creates educational learning partnerships by combining the strengths of both whānau and school. As well as teaching parents’ specific skills, the process seeks to foster collaborative and non-threatening partnerships between parents, teachers, children and libraries.

To support the coming expansion of Reading Together® in the future (2022 onwards), Pragmatica recently prepared an action-oriented research summary for Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga|Ministry of Education which describes ways schools implemented the programme effectively, including some challenges they overcame.

The report brings the evidence together to outline:

• why Reading Together Te Pānui Ngātahi is a powerful educational opportunity

• the programme outcomes for parents, whānau, aiga and children, and schools and communities

• what works and doesn’t work for effective implementation

• how schools can be supported to implement the programme.

The report also examines the support the Ministry of Education provided to schools in their implementation from 2007–2020.

The evaluation summary report and set of A3 infographics can be accessed here: