Sir Jim Rose in Australia

The leading British educationalist, Sir Jim Rose, will be visiting Australia in September this year, at the invitation of LDA. Sir Jim is probably best known for his 2006 review of the teaching of early reading in the UK, which has led to significant changes in approaches to the teaching of initial reading, with a strong emphasis on the inclusion of systematic teaching of phonics. He is currently completing a review of the Primary Curriculum in the UK, and has also been asked to make recommendations on the identification and teaching of children with dyslexia.

During his time in Australia Sir Jim will be visiting Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

The major LDA event will be a Seminar in Melbourne on 23 September. This Seminar will focus on the topic Effective Reading Instruction for All: National and International Perspectives, and will include as the main speakers Sir Jim Rose, together with Professor Barry McGaw, the Chair of the Australian National Curriculum Board, Dr Kerry Hempenstall, an educational psychologist recently retired from the Division of Psychology at RMIT, and John Fleming, Head of Campus for Haileybury College at Berwick in Melbourne and previously Principal at Bellfield Primary School.  The Seminar will be followed by a Discussion Panel chaired by the President of LDA, Professor Max Coltheart.

Sir Jim Rose will also be making a special presentation at the 2009 Joint LDA, RSTAQ and SPELD Queensland Conference in Brisbane on 18 September, where he will present an address on the topic Primary Education - Policy and Practice in England.

Sir Jim will be in Adelaide on 12 September, where he will be presenting a Seminar on the topic Reading: Getting It Right from the Start. This event will be hosted jointly by LDA, AASE and SPELD SA. He will be in Perth on 14 and 15 September, where he will present two sessions on current developments in literacy and education, organised by the Dyslexia SPELD Foundation of Western Australia. The first session, on 14 September, will be directed at School Principals, and the second session, on 15 September, is open to all teachers, education professionals and psychologists. On 25 September he will be in Sydney, where he will be meeting with representatives from the Australian Primary Principals’ Association, LDA and the National Curriculum Board.

Sir Jim Rose’s visit to Australia will hopefully raise awareness of issues relating to effective teaching of reading in the early years of school, and the different paths taken by Australia and the UK in response to reviews which essentially came up with the same findings and the same recommendations.