You may have heard the phrase 'the science of reading' at a school information night, in the news, or from another parent. It's shaping how reading is taught across Australia right now. Here's what it actually means, without the jargon.
It's not a program — it's the evidence
The science of reading isn't a single product or method you can buy. It's the large body of research — from cognitive science, linguistics and education — about how the human brain learns to read. That evidence points clearly toward one approach: structured literacy.
What the evidence says
In short: reading is not natural the way speaking is. We're wired to talk, but reading has to be explicitly taught. And the most reliable way to teach it is to teach the relationship between sounds and letters — phonics — systematically, explicitly and cumulatively.
- Systematic — following a planned sequence, not picking sounds at random.
- Explicit — teaching each thing directly, not hoping children work it out.
- Cumulative — each step builds on the last, with constant review.
Guessing words from pictures or context is what struggling readers do. Skilled readers decode. The goal is to teach every child to decode.
What it means for your child
In practice, it means less guessing and more decoding. Fewer whole words memorised as shapes, and more understanding of how the code works. It's why our resources mark heart words the way they do, and why the packs follow a deliberate sequence rather than a random assortment.
The Australian picture
Structured literacy now underpins curriculum and assessment across much of Australia — including Victoria's Year 1 Phonics Check, which asks whether children can decode words (real and nonsense) using their phonics knowledge. If your child is heading toward that check, systematic phonics is exactly the preparation that helps.
