Ziptales is a primary literacy program. It was created with the aim of making reading a pleasure. Its philosophy is to offer a vast range of reading experiences, very much like a digital version of a real library, where above all the child actually enjoys the reading.
Ziptales was founded by two ex-teachers, Richard and Valerie McRoberts. Richard has been a writer, editor and publisher working at all levels of primary and secondary publishing. He has a Masters in Education and specialised in literature and reading. Valerie was a teacher, editor and publisher. She has an Honours degree in Literature, as well as a Masters in Education, specialising in “gifted” education. Both had previously been directors of a successful print publishing company (Wizard Books), with sales throughout Australia and overseas.
For schools, Ziptales is available as a whole school site licence (see “Pricing”). The fee is structured around the size of the school. The subscription now includes unlimited homework use of Ziptales as well. This is at the discretion of the teacher, but Ziptales welcomes home use of its resource, in the interests of accelerating students' literacy development and encouraging parent engagement.
Schools can subscribe as a whole – the most economical way of taking the service - or ask for a single class licence.
For libraries, please contact us for more information.
It is important for teachers to know that there is a whole “Staffroom” of essential information and class support. We also offer amazing phone and email support.
Every year, Ziptales adds new content, as part of our pact with teachers to continually “refresh” the site. It is important for schools to read the regular newsletters, to keep up with what is new.
Ziptales is focussed on the pleasure of the child’s reading experience, and sees “assessment” as secondary. There is no automatic “tracking” of children’s scores. We ask teachers to use one of the two tracking devices (see “Staffroom - How to - Student Tracking”) to record what their children have read and what scores have been obtained.
Ziptales works on both PC and Mac, as well as any tablet or mobile device. Such as an iPad or Android Tablet. All you need to do is go to ziptales.com in your browser. We recommend using Google Chrome as it is the fastest and free.
Yes! The 600+ modules are now all available to view on the iPad.
Or click here to close and continue on our Australian and New Zealand site.