Ms Yolanda Soryl, of Christchurch, CNZM, for services to literacy education
Yolanda Soryl is an educator who has specialised in early literacy teaching in New Zealand since 2002. While teaching at a Christchurch primary school, she set out to develop a successful phonics programme for New Zealand primary and ECE teachers. She put videos of her lessons on YouTube, wrote training manuals, and taught courses across New Zealand. She has produced hundreds of early literacy resources. She has run Early Literacy Clinics to help and inspire teachers. She developed and advocated phonics education through a time when systematic phonics teaching lacked official government endorsement. It is now recognised as a fundamental aspect of the Structured Literacy approach endorsed by the Ministry of Education. Ms Soryl is currently a Reading Recovery teacher at Ao Tawhiti School in Christchurch.