Pictured: Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, reading to students during a school visit. Mr Joyce is encouraging families and teachers in the New England to take advantage of a Government-supported, phonics and reading awareness check.

Families and teachers in the New England can now use free, online resources to help their children learn to read.

Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said the Coalition Government had launched a free phonics check for teachers and a simple reading awareness check for families.

“Literacy and numeracy are the fundamentals of a successful education, and our Government is giving families free tools to ensure their children’s reading is on track,” Mr Joyce said.

“We have provided $10.8 million to develop resources for families and educators to assess the language skills of students to help them better understand a child’s reading level.

“By checking on the language skills of our youngest students we can ensure that no one is left behind and every student has the building blocks to develop strong reading, writing and speaking skills.

“I urge all schools in the New England to take advantage of the free phonics check to help teachers determine a child’s reading progress and what additional support they may need.

“Literacy and numeracy are the absolute fundamentals of a world-leading education, and studies have shown phonics is the most effective way of teaching children to read.

“Our Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a voluntary phonics health check for Year 1 students.”

The Government has also released a new reading awareness check and literacy resources for parents to help their children learn to read.

The phonics check and reading awareness check are available with more resources to support literacy development on stage one of the new online Literacy Hub at literacyhub.edu.au

(ENDS)