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About us
About us

Changing lives by improving literacy

Our Philosophy

Literacy is a fundamental building block and the key to success in both education and work life.

Poor literacy skills are likely to stop people from achieving their full potential and can have a devastating effect on self-confidence. By helping people improve their literacy skills, you are truly changing their lives.

We also believe that, as educators, we need to move away from ‘fix them when they’re broke’. In other words, we need to stop waiting for children to fail and then focussing on intervention. Our materials are designed to enable every learner to progress at their own speed and level, with the right amount of reinforcement and specialist activities to stop dyslexic learners falling through the cracks, but also enable advanced learners to move ahead at their own pace. 

Our Objectives

 

Real Impact

To produce an effective research-based literacy tool that really works.

 

Accessibility

To be accessible to as many people as possible, including families, without training.

 

Individualised

To tailor fit the needs of each individual learner, so no child falls through the cracks.

 

Flexibility

The ability to be implemented in the classroom or at home.

Ros Lugg

StepsWeb Founder

Ros started her working life as a translator doing technical translations for an engineering company in Germany. Later on, she became a modern languages teacher in the UK, teaching German, French, and Spanish.

After her eldest son began struggling with reading in school, Ros pushed for him to have an educational assessment which identified he was dyslexic, Ros was intrigued about what made it harder for some children to acquire literacy skills. She did further psychology training and then did the OCR Diploma in Specific Learning Disabilities, which is a Masters Level qualification in specialist teaching and assessment.

Since then, Ros has done over 3,000 full educational/cognitive assessments, worked as a tutor for learners with severe needs, and went on to develop The Learning Staircase, including educational resources and StepsWeb, the online program. 

Our Journey

From hands-on gamesets to a leading online literacy program, we’ve been changing lives by improving literacy for over 25 years.

1998

How it all began

When Ros’s eldest son, David, was aged seven, he was identified as a high functioning dyslexic. Ros, who already had experience as a teacher, was intrigued about what made it harder for some children to acquire literacy skills. She underwent further education, completing a Masters level qualification in specialist teaching and assessment.

2001

The Learning Staircase is born

Frustrated with the lack of good resources, particularly for older learners with very low literacy skills, Ros created a range of hands-on games, activity resources, and educational assessments to support and identify learners with severe needs.

 

2007

Digital transformation

Ros’s son, David, had grown to become a talented software developer. Together, Ros and David created Steps Network, a literacy teaching software which focused on effective research-based approaches, rather than ‘edutainment’.

2008

The teaching centre

To cope with increasing demand for educational assessments and tuition, Ros opened the Step by Step Centre. It grows to have 10 staff and 130 students.

 

2011

Rattled

The Christchurch earthquake forces the closure of the Step by Step Centre. However, this enabled us to focus on the software program.

2015

StepsWeb is born

Following a boost of recognition after receiving the Mainpower Supreme Award in 2014, we created StepsWeb - the online version of Steps Network with the help of a grant from Callaghan Innovation.

2016

Published research

In collaboration with the University of Auckland, our research in visual recognition speed, and its use to predict future ability to learn literacy, is published. This world-first test can be administered through the StepsWeb online program.

2020

Lockdown logins

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, we realised that schools were struggling with all the challenges of remote learning. We decided the best way we could help was by providing free additional licences for the lockdown, and a period afterwards. Over 50,000 were taken up in each major lockdown, and we were pleased to be able to help during that difficult time.

2023

World Literacy Summit

Ros presents at the World Literacy Summit at Oxford University, sharing her research into literacy development and visual recognition speed with educators across the United Kingdom.

2023

Independent NZ Study

A two-term independent study was conducted by New Zealand Ministry of Education staff in six primary schools in West Auckland. The study set out to assess the impact of structured literacy approaches on literacy outcomes for whole year-groups, and found students made an average of 14 months literacy gain after 6 months of consistent StepsWeb use.

2025

Boosting support in Australia

StepsWeb joined forces with Pearson Australia to provide localised high-quality support for educators in Brisbane, Perth, or anywhere in between. We also conducted a study in collaboration with EduGrowth, Monash University, and six Australian schools to assess the program’s effectiveness in real Australian classrooms.

 

Today

Over 25 years later

StepsWeb has changed lives by improving literacy for over 400,000 students, and is starting to be used extensively abroad, particularly Australia, Singapore, and UK.

In 2026, StepsWeb was listed on the Learning Cabinet, a UNICEF-led initiative to curate evidence-backed EdTech solutions which are capable of addressing the global learning crisis.

We are continually adding to StepsWeb, making improvements, and listening to evolving literacy teaching needs to make it the most effective literacy teaching device possible.

A team that cares

Ensuring the program doesn't just work, but thrives is important to us. Whether that's through providing high-quality educational and technical support, environmentally sustainable practices, or giving back to the community where we can.

Supporting our users

Helping educators and parents make the best use of StepsWeb resources.

Environmentally conscious

From minimising plastics, flights, and running on a solar-powered office.

 

Community involvement

Providing free or subsidised use of StepsWeb for non-profits that support severely disadvantaged children and adults.

Support in the Pacific Islands

Alongside providing free student logins to schools in the Pacific Islands, we have contributed to a number of projects which focused on improving literacy skills for learners.

Vanuatu_2026_initiative

Support for Secondary Schools in Vanuatu

StepsWeb provided software, workbooks, and training to three secondary schools in Port Vila. This project was coordinated by Cognition Education with support from the Ministry of Education & Training, Vanuatu and funded by New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

SamoanPilotProjectB

Samoa Pilot Project

Steps was introduced into a pilot literacy project across four schools in Samoa (two primary-intermediate and two high schools) in partnership with the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC). The project was led by Paul Henriques, Director of Dyslexia Aid and Pacific Islands Steps Trainer in an effort to improve literacy outcomes for students in Samoa.

Literacy_painting_from_inmate

Fiji Correction Centre

During a visit to Fiji, Steps, the forerunner of StepsWeb, was used to support English literacy development for long-term inmates at a local prison.

The program provided opportunities for adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their literacy skills and job prospects for life after release. A painting created by one participant now hangs in our Christchurch office as a lasting reminder of our mission - changing lives by improving literacy.

Working here

Creating literacy software fuelled by expertise, collaboration, coffee… and the occasional TimTam.

Creating a sophisticated educational program like StepsWeb takes a team of educators, developers and specialists who care deeply about improving literacy outcomes for learners. 
 
We value innovation, creativity and collaboration. Our teams work closely together, openly sharing ideas and expertise to continually improve what we do.
 
However, we believe firmly that families come first and that our people need a life outside of work. We encourage everyone to work their regular hours, take breaks and go home on time. We also strongly discourage contacting staff out of hours.

Email: info@stepsweb.com
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