English

At St Mary’s we believe that Literacy is the cornerstone of a child’s ability to learn and succeed in all areas of their lives. We strive to ensure that all students succeed to the best of their abilities in Literacy. By communicating effectively with others and having the skills to make sense of their world, they will be equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

 

 Students at St Mary’s participate in a daily two hour Literacy block which involves a variety of rich activities and experiences that teach and develop:

  • Reading and comprehension skills
  • A love of literature
  • Writing skills including a knowledge of genre, punctuation and grammar, enhanced through the use of VCOP program
  • Spelling using the SMART Spelling approach
  • In P-2 an introduction to how words and letters work e.g. phonics, decoding, word study using the Little Learners Love Literacy approach
  • Oral language skill
  • Handwriting skills

 

To support our Reading programs and encourage a love of reading in our students, St Mary’s has a well stocked library where students have an opportunity to visit with their class and borrow books that are of interest to them.

 

 

 

 

Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL)

LLLL is a literacy program developed by Maureen Pollard for early primary students. 

It is based on evidence from research that recommends the explicit and systematic teaching of early literacy skills using phonemic awareness and synthetic phonics.

 

The program includes:

 

 Letter and sound introduction through the use of a ‘Sound Box’.

 

 

Word Walls related to sounds of the week

 

 

Practice of previously learned sounds through ‘Chitter Chatter Chants’

 

 

Teacher focus groups and small group games

  

 

 

 

 

WRITING

At St Mary’s, we use the Victorian Curriculum as a basis for our teaching. Student data (formal and informal assessment) is used to identify specific needs so that targeted teaching can be implemented. We use evidence based programs to drive our Literacy sessions.

 

SMART Spelling

Created by Michelle Hutchinson, SMART Spelling is a systematic approach to spelling using letter and sound patterns. Students from years 1 to 6 choose their words each week, taking their practice sheet home to complete each night to help consolidate their learning.

 

The acronym SMART stands for the lesson sequence in which the content is taught:

 

S - Say: The teacher says the word and students repeat it out loud.

 

M - Meaning: The teacher uses the word in a spoken sentence.

 

A - Analyse: Break the words up into individual sounds/syllables, then break into letters using clusters (e.g. snow - /s/n/ow/)

 

R - Remember: The teacher asks the student to identify the ‘tricky part’ to remember.

 

T - Teach: Students teach themselves the word by spelling it aloud, saying the letter names and using clustering.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 VCOP and the Big Write

At St Mary’s we use the VCOP structure to support Writing sessions in our classrooms. VCOP and the Big Write is a teaching approach based on the research of Ros Wilson, an expert based in the UK. It focuses on four main aspects of the writing process (VCOP) and provides children with the skills to improve their own writing through self-assessment.

 

VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectors, Openers, and Punctuation. 

 

 

 

 

Big Write sessions happen throughout units of work, providing students with the opportunity to write a full start-finish writing piece with support of the teachers and VCOP resources.

 

 

Cold Write sessions are where students are not given the opportunity to talk about the topic before writing and the learning aides are removed. It often comes with a whole school stimulus to get everyone talking. This is an opportunity for students to display what they know without the assistance from external resources.

  

 

A full explanation of the program with information about how you can help at home can be found here.

 

 

 

 

INTERVENTION

Targeted Literacy Intervention is provided at all year levels, facilitated by our Intervention Teachers and Learning Support Officers.