Building blocks for success: The Y WA’s School Ready Program

The 2025 release of NAPLAN results, coupled with the release of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) results, highlighted the dire need for earlier intervention for our children to prepare them for being school ready*. The Y WA’s School ReadY Program is the solution.

This unique, evidence-based program, developed by the Y WA, has been rolled out across all 14 Early Learning Centres (ELC) across WA since April 2024, and is delivering learning experiences with notable results according to feedback from families.

School ReadY is informed by a contemporary understanding of the science of early childhood learning and brain development. It provides educators with the resources and coaching they need to build success in three developmental domains including literacy and language, social and emotional wellbeing, and numeracy.

Since April 2024 the literacy and language component of the program has been supporting 3–5-year-old children to develop oral language and early literacy skills to give them the best start to formal schooling. Through intentional teaching combined with play-based experiences, the program provides learning opportunities for the development of key skills needed when formal instruction of reading begins. 

The Y WA Literacy Specialist Renee Chakaodza said, “Our School ReadY Program provides opportunities for children to develop fundamental pre-literacy and oral language skills including phonological awareness, semantic knowledge, narrative skills and comprehension. Developing these critical skills before they start school has a lasting impact because the early years are a period of enormous growth.”  

Four and a half year old Amber Aulakh attended the Y WA’s Brabham Early Learning Centre and as she progressed to Kindergarten at the local primary school in 2025, the results of the School ReadY Program were noted by her mum Param.

“The School ReadY Program builds foundational skills like vocabulary, phonics, and early literacy in a way that feels fun and engaging for children. It’s been a game changer for Amber — not just academically, but emotionally and socially too. It gave her the tools to build confidence, communicate clearly, and embrace learning with excitement. Watching her grow into an expressive, curious, and school-ready child has been an absolute joy,” said Param.

Brabham is a community in Perth’s north-east and is considered a culturally and linguistically diverse area, with over 50 different languages being spoken in the homes of students attending Brabham Primary School, according to Creating Communities.

Param added, “The bilingual support has truly empowered her to express herself clearly and confidently in different settings and she is now communicating more openly both at home and in school. It’s helped her strengthen her English without losing connection to her home language, and that’s been so important for us as a family. It’s made a real difference in helping her feel confident and connected across both cultures.”

School ReadY aims to ‘level the playing field’ by giving all children (regardless of their postcode or family background) opportunities to develop key skills needed to set them up for success once their formal schooling begins. 

CEO of the Y WA Dr Tim McDonald said, “More children are arriving at school without fundamental pre-literacy and oral language skills. With nearly one in four Australian children starting school developmentally behind, it’s difficult and costly for schools to close that gap. High-quality early learning experiences like those we are delivering through School ReadY, have the potential to reverse this trend, particularly for children experiencing disadvantage.

“It’s been an intense, exciting journey so far to develop, implement, and evaluate our School ReadY Program, and our progress to date is testament to the commitment and passion of our people. A phased approach by focussing first on the literacy and language component, has enabled us to support our educators to adopt and implement components of the program.”

The School ReadY Program has, to date, successfully designed and rolled out the literacy and language component, with work starting imminently on resources to support the development of social-emotional wellbeing outcomes. An approach to numeracy will be the final piece of the puzzle, making the School ReadY Program complete to support holistic development of children before they start school.