Literacy

Lara Primary School places a strong emphasis on developing literacy skills through meaningful contexts. We believe the study of English is central to the learning and development of confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed learners. Through our Literacy program, students develop skills to become thoughtful, active members of society. Teachers work collaboratively to plan using the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and deliver a consistent approach to teaching literacy. Daily instruction in Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Speaking & Listening is taught using a gradual release of responsibility model with explicit teaching (I Do, We Do, You Do). This sees learning move from teacher, to class and then finally, independent practice.

Our Reading model involves explicit teaching of specific reading strategies and skills. We provide a scaffold for students as they make the transition from emergent through to independent readers. The Writing model provides a clear whole school approach to enhance teaching and learning and improve student outcomes. The Writing session begins with modelled or shared writing experience. Teachers demonstrate and explicitly teach the text type being studied and unpack associated text features, structures and vocabulary. Students are given the opportunity to practise what has been modelled. Students are guided through the Writing Process, where they select texts to publish and share with different audiences.

In Years P-2 we have 60 minutes of daily explicit Phonics Plus lessons, which is a systematic-synthetic phonics approach to the teaching and learning of decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling/writing), as well as phonological and phonemic awareness activities. The teaching of high frequency words aligns with this approach. Students are supported with their Phonics Plus lessons through decodable texts, to reinforce concepts learnt at school.

A well-stocked school library and classroom libraries, as well as a variety of take home books, compliment the implementation of our literacy program. Lara Primary School is bursting with an abundance of reading materials to engage students in a love of both reading and writing and support independent reading and writing at home. All students have weekly access to the school library.

When you enter a Literacy classroom at Lara Primary School, you will see students working with printed and digital texts, individually, in small groups or with the whole class. Students are eager to share their reading and writing with you, and will proudly tell you what they are learning about.  This is particularly evident during our Writer’s Showcase events, which are held each term.

At home, we ask you to support your child by reading and writing with them to consolidate and practise skills developed at school. Children will bring home texts to celebrate their reading and writing skills – please, talk about these stories, listen to them read, ask them to write for you and tell them how very proud you are of them each and every day!