Kindergarten
Our literacy programs address the aspects of talking and listening, reading and writing. In Jolly Phonics the children begin to learn to recognise, read and write 42 sounds. As they consolidate the individual sounds, they learn to blend these to read and write words. This enables them to begin writing simple sentences that are well structured using capital letters and full-stops. This allows the children to write simple recounts, narratives and procedures. The children learn to recognise sight words and read simple texts at their appropriate level. Our talking and listening program complements the learning by developing the children's ability to follow instructions, express themselves orally, ask relevant questions and acquire concepts that they can apply to other subject areas.
Year 1 and 2
Our literacy programs address the aspects of talking and listening, reading and writing. Jolly Grammar, which follows on from Jolly Phonics in Kindergarten, is a complex program with a specific grammar focus being taught each week. The children learn to structure compound and complex sentences using correct punctuation and grammar. This allows the children to write for a range of audiences and purposes, across all text types including narrative, procedure, explanation and information reports. Accelerated literacy and the ‘sentence –a-day' programs work to further consolidate the children's writing skills and to develop efficient and accurate reading skills. Our talking and listening program complements the learning by developing the children's ability to follow instructions, express themselves orally, ask relevant questions and acquire concepts that they can apply to other subject areas.
Year 3 and 4
Year 3 and 4 students in literacy communicate expressively and clearly with growing proficiency about ideas and information in classroom , school and social situations for a range of purposes. They want to explore a variety of roles when interacting in friendship pairs and their peer groups , attending to different views and responding appropriately and they use various listening behaviours to gather general ideas and key points from conversations, reports or spoken presentations. Our year 3 and 4 students independently read, view and respond to familiar and challenging texts through interaction with the accelerated literacy program to explore the purposes of authors and justify interpretations of literary structures, ideas, information and events.
Year 5 and 6
Our literacy programs integrate the strands of talking and listening, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and handwriting (including word processing) presented in the context of quality, authentic texts. Students in years 5 and 6 are given the opportunity to develop their understanding of the purpose, structure and language of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts. They are encouraged to be independent critical and creative thinkers.
Accelerated literacy
Accelerated literacy is embedded into all classrooms. Accelerated literacy is a teaching approach designed to effectively improve literacy knowledge, skills and understandings. The approach is a whole-class pedagogy suitable for all students. Using the accelerated literacy pedagogy enables teachers to extend students in the same classroom as those requiring extra support.
Features of the accelerated literacy pedagogy:
- sequenced teaching
- scaffolding the students to reach high expectations
- strong oral language development
- highlevel of motivation in learners
- culturally inclusive
- access to academic literate discourse
- whole class implementation
- application across all curriculum areas
- emphasises quality literature