Empowering educators

In classrooms across Australia, literacy remains one of the most urgent and complex challenges facing teachers. With increasingly diverse student cohorts and growing expectations, many educators are asking: what actually works when teaching children to read and write? 

La Trobe University’s Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab is working with schools to help answer that question.

Established in 2020 within the School of Education, the SOLAR Lab provides a platform for research and knowledge translation focused on how language and reading skills develop—and how that understanding can be put into practice in real classrooms.

One of the Lab’s major initiatives involves close collaboration with five Victorian Department of Education schools, spanning eight campuses across metropolitan Melbourne and the Greater Bendigo region. Co-directors Professor Pamela Snow and Associate Professor Tanya Serry are working directly with teachers and school leaders through bespoke professional learning and classroom-based coaching. The goal: to support scientifically grounded instruction in reading, writing, and spelling.

“Each school is in a different place on its journey,” explains Professor Snow. “Our role is to support implementation science—helping schools translate new knowledge into practical, sustainable teaching practices, shaped by their local context.”

This tailored approach means working with schools over time to build confidence and capability. Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, the SOLAR team listens and adapts, helping schools make sense of the Science of Reading in their own setting.

“We work hard to maintain focus and motivation and to encourage our partners to ‘hasten slowly’ on change,” says Associate Professor Serry. “It’s about embedding good practice, not overwhelming staff. It takes time to stabilise change and see consistent impact across year levels.”

While COVID-related disruptions slowed in-person work during 2021 and 2022, the coaching and collaboration continued, and the feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Staff have told us that the partnership with SOLAR has been crucial,” says Professor Snow. “They value having evidence-informed guidance and someone to turn to as challenges arise.”

Ultimately, the work is grounded in a belief that every child deserves access to proven, effective literacy instruction, and that teachers deserve the tools and support to make that happen.

“We want all children to cross the ‘reading bridge’ in the first three years of school,” says Professor Snow, “not just the ones who were always going to get there.”