Better Start Literacy Approach

Better Start Literacy Approach BSLA provides evidence-based structured literacy professional learning & development (PLD) to New Zealand teachers.

We are based at the University of Canterbury (UC) Child Well-being Research Institute.

📬 Have you explored the BSLA Letterbox©?The BSLA Letterbox© is a practical resource designed to support learners who may...
21/09/2026

📬 Have you explored the BSLA Letterbox©?

The BSLA Letterbox© is a practical resource designed to support learners who may find letter formation or fine motor tasks challenging, or who have additional learning needs — helping reduce cognitive load while keeping the focus on literacy learning.

It can be used across whole-class teaching, Tier 2 and Tier 3 phoneme manipulation activities, as well as during small-group reading for making and breaking words. It can also support the development of morphological knowledge, including root words, prefixes and suffixes.

You can see the BSLA Letterbox in action, watch demonstration videos and find out more here:

🔗 https://betterstartapproach.com/resources/for-educators/bsla-letterbox

15/09/2026

Interested in a BSLA microcredential for your teacher aides?

Here's a little message from our course coordinator Catherine Fairhall.

Get in touch at: [email protected]

10/09/2026

Interested in our Targeted & Tailored PLD?

Course co-ordinator Dr Lisa Furlong explains who it’s for and what it involves.

For more information, head to the BSLA website or get in touch any time.

Here are some upcoming dates for our Refresher Workshops.If you're interested in attending, please get in touch: askBSLA...
06/09/2026

Here are some upcoming dates for our Refresher Workshops.

If you're interested in attending, please get in touch: [email protected]

03/09/2026

Workshop 2 is well underway in Tāmaki Makarau!

SLA Cohort 9 is underway today!
31/08/2026

SLA Cohort 9 is underway today!

28/08/2026

We’re excited to share our new open-access paper exploring children’s first-hand experiences of structured literacy teaching through BSLA.

Rather than asking adults what they think tamariki experience, we went straight to the tamariki themselves. Through drawings, an emoji-scale survey and individual interviews, five young learners told us what they enjoyed about learning to read and write, what they thought they were learning, and how they saw themselves as readers and writers.

There are some lovely insights along the way, including tamariki talking about their favourite phonological awareness activities, decodable readers and shared storybooks, and explaining their own literacy learning goals with impressive specificity! Perhaps most interestingly, what tamariki thought about themselves as readers and writers didn’t always match what their assessment data told us.

A fun and thought-provoking read about structured literacy from the perspective of those at the centre of it - our tamariki.

Many thanks to the the tamariki who participated in this research, and their teachers for supporting this research.

Click the link below to access the article:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02656590261477507

28/08/2026

A quick update from Andy Vosslamber - our programme coordinator for structured literacy PLD for teachers in years 4-8.

More great Refresher Workshops rolling out across the motu.
25/08/2026

More great Refresher Workshops rolling out across the motu.

Our series of Refresher Workshops are well underway, with courses in Waikato and Whāngārei yesterday.If you're intereste...
24/08/2026

Our series of Refresher Workshops are well underway, with courses in Waikato and Whāngārei yesterday.

If you're interested in these workshops, or any of our programmes, please get in touch:
[email protected]

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Christchurch

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Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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