Hon JAN TINETTI: For far too long, approaches to literacy teaching haven't had a strong research base. Our strategy is evidence based and draws on domestic and international best practice and expert advice. However, importantly, it also caters to the New Zealand context and ensures that we place the learner at the centre, and leave nothing to chance. This strategy combines both phonemic awareness and whole language. To understand how these approaches work in practice Pauline Jones from Wollongong University said it well recently when she said, "There'd be time for instruction in phonics but there'll be also time for looser, less explicit teaching where the students are learning to employ those skills in other domains".