Signature partnership
Building Literacy Excellence™: a whole school literacy improvement partnership
Building Literacy Excellence™
A one year whole school literacy improvement partnership that takes the guesswork out of school improvement. Know what to change, in what order and how to embed it, so more students progress and the improvement lasts when staff change.
“We’ve worked hard on literacy, but our data isn’t shifting as much as we hoped.”
You have invested in structured literacy programs, professional learning and assessment. Your teachers are working hard. Yet too many students are still struggling, practice varies between classrooms, and you are not confident about what needs to change next.
Building Literacy Excellence™ helps your leadership team turn that uncertainty into focused action and measurable progress. Across one year, I work alongside your team to identify what is holding students back, recommend the next steps and support you to embed stronger teaching and schoolwide systems.
Your school’s starting point determines the work
We begin with the concern you most want to solve: reading results that are not improving, low confidence in teaching writing, growing intervention lists or inconsistent practice across classrooms. We examine your student data, staff surveys and the current conditions and systems supporting teaching schoolwide. The Literacy Excellence Health Check™ helps identify strengths, gaps and priorities.
Your personalised roadmap follows your school’s needs. An urgent writing concern, for example, shapes the goals and sequence of support. There is no one size fits all approach.
In your first 30 days, we establish direction and clarity
- A clearer diagnosis of the priority barriers to student progress
- Agreed goals and baseline measures
- A personalised literacy improvement roadmap
- A manageable first implementation focus
- Named responsibilities and a rhythm for reviewing progress
You will know where to start, why that starting point matters and what your team needs to do next.
Through the year, the work becomes visible in classrooms
Teachers receive professional learning, models and feedback connected to your agreed priorities, grounded in action learning that transfers to student learning. Leaders develop the knowledge, tools and clarity to support implementation through staff meetings, PLCs and classroom practice, in a staged approach built for your school.
We work through the Implementation Pathway™ (Issue, Audit, Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Codify, Sustain) in five week improvement cycles. Each cycle keeps the work focused: implement an agreed change, look at what is happening in classrooms, review student progress and refine accordingly. When progress is insufficient, we review the evidence together and I recommend the next step.
The Implementation Pathway™
- 01Issue
- 02Audit
- 03Diagnose
- 04Plan
- 05Implement
- 06Codify
- 07Sustain
In five week improvement cycles
Before the year ends, we protect the work
Your team develops agreed teaching practices, usable instructional guidance and clear responsibilities for monitoring implementation. We connect these to staff induction, school improvement planning and review, so new teachers understand how literacy is taught in your school and have the support to implement it.
What whole school literacy improvement looks like after one year
By the end of Building Literacy Excellence™, your school will have:
A team of middle leaders who share responsibility for literacy improvement.
Your school has instructional champions who can model agreed practices, support colleagues, lead data conversations and monitor implementation. Clear roles and shared routines distribute the leadership work, so progress no longer depends on you or one literacy leader.
Agreed teaching practices across classrooms.
Teachers have explicit routines, lesson models and planning tools for your school’s literacy priorities, with modelling, practice and feedback to help them implement these confidently.
Assessment that leads to action.
Screening, diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring identifies students not on track, informs what teachers teach next, which students need additional support and whether that support is working.
A more precise intervention pathway.
Clear processes guide how students enter, receive and move out of support, alongside stronger classroom instruction within a schoolwide framework of RTI/MTSS that also encompasses behaviour.
Shared leadership and documented practice.
Instructional guides, checklists, pacing guides, data review routines and implementation checks make the work less dependent on one person and easier to sustain when staff change.
Evidence of student progress against agreed targets.
Your team can show what has changed in the priority areas, identify students who still need support and explain the next steps. Targeted Literacy Cycles are introduced for schoolwide goal setting precision.
We set ambitious, measurable targets from your school’s starting point and review them throughout the year. The purpose is more students becoming capable readers and writers, and a school with the expertise and systems to keep that progress going.
Evidence of what is possible
67% → 5%
Prep students in the highest risk reading category reduced from 67% to 5%.
Crib Point Primary School
50% → 79%
Whole school proportion at benchmark in reading increased from 50% to 79%.
Darlington Primary School
50% → 1.4%
Year 7 students at significant risk in oral reading accuracy reduced from 50% to 1.4% (DIBELS ORF accuracy).
Monterey Secondary College
The support in your school literacy improvement partnership
- Online leadership intensives for the leading literacy team
- Online strategy sessions during WA school terms
- Personalised Roadmap planning sessions
- Literacy Excellence Health Check™ and an individualised 12 month Literacy Improvement Roadmap™
- Whole school professional learning days
- Expert feedback on classroom instruction
- Lifetime access to the Leading Literacy Impact™ masterclass and Resource Vault for up to four leaders, to use across the school
- Four copies of Julie’s book, plus writing resources, planners, scope and sequences, instructional guide templates and staff meeting materials
A realistic commitment
Building Literacy Excellence™ includes up to four leaders, with active principal involvement and at least one team member at the weekly 90 minute strategy sessions. Before enrolment we talk through your leadership capacity and protected time, and how the work fits your existing improvement planning, staff meetings and PLCs.
Your school doesn’t need perfect systems or all the answers before starting. It needs a leadership team with a commitment to examining practice, protecting implementation time and responding to evidence.
Your investment
One annual investment per school, including up to four leaders. Pay upfront or across two semester payments.
The core partnership is online. In person delivery or additional team members can be added at an additional cost, subject to availability, and are agreed before enrolment.
How to apply
1
Submit an expression of interest
2
We will contact you for a 15 minute fit call: a school readiness conversation about your concern and your capacity
3
Where there is a fit, a 30 minute strategic alignment meeting to agree scope, dates, responsibilities and investment
4
Complete the Literacy Excellence Health Check™ so we have a snapshot of your school
Bring the literacy concern your team most wants to solve.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Building Literacy Excellence™ cost?
Building Literacy Excellence™ is one annual investment per school, including up to four leaders, with upfront or semester payment options. Most schools fund it through their school improvement or professional learning budget. The core partnership runs online. In person delivery or extra team members can be added at an additional cost, subject to availability, and are agreed before enrolment. We’ll walk you through the full investment on your Literacy Clarity Call.
Will it work in our context?
We begin with your student evidence, staff capability and school systems, and agree the priorities and targets from that starting point. The school examples show what has happened in other contexts; the strategic alignment meeting helps establish what is relevant to yours.
How will we find the time?
Protected time is needed, and we are clear about that before you enrol. Up to four leaders take part, with the principal actively sponsoring the work. We recommend at least one team member attends the weekly 90 minute strategy sessions. We look at how the work fits your existing PLCs, staff meetings and improvement planning, and what can be streamlined or paused. A commitment of three online whole school professional learning days across the year (all teachers) and two 60 minute staff meetings or PLCs per term is required to build schoolwide capability and consistency. The four leadership intensives are for the leading literacy team only.
Do we have to replace our programs?
No. We review your existing resources and how teachers use them. The diagnosis guides whether to retain, strengthen, adapt or reconsider something. A new purchase is not assumed to be the answer. However, if the audit finds approaches or programs that are not informed by research, we will tell you.
Can you guarantee our results?
Julie commits to the support, planning, provided tools and review described in the partnership. We agree on measurable student goals from your baseline and monitor progress through the year. No one can promise the same numerical result for every cohort, because your starting point and implementation matter. However, our frameworks and methodology for school improvement are grounded in research and the highest standards of delivery and support for our schools.
How do we get started?
Complete the Expression of Interest form and we will contact you for a 15 minute fit call. Where there is a potential fit, we follow with a 30 minute strategic alignment meeting, then confirm scope, dates, responsibilities and investment before you enrol.