Literacy

The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. The study of English helps young people develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace.

The Victorian English Curriculum aims to ensure that students:

  • Learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.

  • Appreciate, enjoy and use English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue.

  • Understand how English works in its spoken and written forms.

  • Develop interest and skill in inquiring into aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.

English is an integral part of all areas of the curriculum. The English Program at Viewbank Primary aims to develop student’s thinking, speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, knowledge and understandings. Typically, the Literacy session begins with a whole class focus and shared activity, often including the teacher modelling reading and writing skills to the students.  Following this, students will work in small groups where they focus on practising and consolidating their own skills. Lessons conclude with a sharing of the student’s learning.

At Viewbank Primary we incorporate a variety of approaches to ensure our students are receiving the best and most current practices in Literacy. The ‘Words their Way’ and Oxford Words programs, Guided Reading, VCOP use of excellent literature, introduction to different writing genres and explicit teaching are some of the highly effective practises implemented at our school.

The strengths of our English Program are its essential features:

  • A focussed Literacy Session every day incorporating key teaching approaches such as shared and guided reading and VCOP (writing program)

  • Additional assistance to complement and support the classroom program with structured small group Literacy Support from Prep to Grade Six.

  • Differentiated teaching and learning that caters to all levels of development in both Reading and Writing.

  • Focussed Professional Development that provides teachers with the skills and understandings required for effective program implementation. Including the use of up to date teaching resources.

  • Integrated IT resources and programs that are differentiated for all students.

  • A consistent Whole School Approach to all Literacy Lessons.

  • Regular on-going assessment of both reading and writing as outlined in the school’s Assessment Schedule.

  • Development of strong home-school partnerships to assist Literacy development.

  • In addition to classroom resources, Take-Home Reading and our range of Big Books, we have an extensive range of literature available to our students in our library. All students access our Library at least once a week.

The English Program at Viewbank Primary ensures all students are exposed to all aspects of English. This includes reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, spelling, handwriting, text genres, comprehension, and speaking & listening. A wide variety of teaching strategies are used in English lessons and differentiating the curriculum allows teachers to tailor the English Curriculum to meet the individual needs of our students. We believe our students need to become competent in both Literacy and Numeracy in the Early Years of schooling and we then build on this in grades 3 – 6 to ensure our students are competent and confident learners.