» Professional Development

Every school, class and student has individual needs and requirements of a Reading Program – the beauty of Wushka is in the innumerable ways in which it can be used. Our Wushka team members have been attending Professional Development Days around Australia so as to help you engage your students in reading, whether it be on the Interactive Whiteboard, in small groups for shared reading, or for homework tasks. We would love to share our experiences with you, so scroll down to see how Wushka is being used in your area!


Rous Public School

How do you use Wushka in your classroom? In June, we travelled to Rous Public School in northern NSW to hear from Brad and Pauline at a Wushka PD Day. Rous PS has been using Wushka since April and the teachers love how our Reading Program supports students and teachers, and fosters a love of reading in previously disengaged students. Brad gives us a demonstration of how he uses Wushka in his classroom, and what his students enjoy most about our Program. Thanks Brad!


Wushka is a diverse and flexible Reading Program which can be tailored by teachers to meet the needs of their individual students. At Rous PS for our PD Day, we find out that Brad’s students reason and answer the quiz questions as a group so as to develop their comprehension skills, and Pauline loves that children can reread the Readers more than once – just in case!


Sometimes is can be difficult to get parents on board with everything that we do in the classroom. Thankfully, Wushka is based on traditional literacy groups – we’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re merely changing the vehicle through which reading is taught, to suit our changing world.


Suggestions flow from our captive audience at our recent PD Day at Rous PS – Wushka’s online Readers are a more economical alternative to traditional Readers, which means that more students can be reading and learning.


Warragul North Primary School


Brad uses Wushka with both his lower and higher level students. Whether it be for free reading or in reading groups, he finds that his students enjoy Wushka’s Readers themselves, and that our Support Materials supplement the myriad of ways in which Wushka can be used in his classroom.


Typically, students’ reading regresses over the long Summer break. As a parent of a struggling student, Louise can see the benefit of Wushka for home-reading. With 24-hour access to Wushka’s Readers, students can continue their reading journey and keep on learning, even when they’re not at school.


Sharon works with students who are having trouble learning to read. As a Learning and Support teacher, she shares with us some of the many ways in which she uses Wushka in her classroom.


St Joseph’s Primary School Alstonville


Students reading levels tend to drop over the holidays, especially the long Summer break. Ros makes the point that with Wushka, students can continue reading over the holidays – some even improve!


Do you have lots of students reading at the same level, but only a few sets of books? Worry no more! Lisa teaches Kindergarten and Stage 1 students and is finding Wushka particularly handy when her students are doing individual reading, as they have access to a large number of Readers at each level, and can all access the Readers at the same time.


Ros and Lisa have been using Wushka with their students at St Joseph’s Primary School, Alstonville. They use Wushka’s Reading Program for take home Readers and STAR Reading in Kindergarten and Stage 1, and for lower level students in Stage 2 and Stage 3. Ros and Lisa share with us how exactly their students are using the Program.