Literacy

Literacy is the key to success for students across the curriculum. At Forest Street Primary School, we believe that all students can achieve high standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, given sufficient time and support.

Focused teaching, along with high expectations for all students, has a significant impact on student achievement. Teachers assess and monitor students throughout the year to identify each student’s needs and plan for literacy teaching and learning accordingly. Student progress is tracked as a whole school via our data wall.

Our teachers plan in teams to co-create rich lessons for Reading, Writing and Word Studies. Each lesson follows the whole- part -whole structure to ensure that we provide focused teaching groups, guided groups, and independent work. The Victorian curriculum provides the basis for our curriculum, which is supported by the Department’s literacy tool kit.

"Focused teaching, along with high expectations for all students, has a significant impact on student achievement"

We use Fountas and Pinnell Continuum of Leaning as our consistent planning document across the school. V.C.O.P. is embedded in the teaching of writers which is based on the writing cycle.

Our whole school instructional model can be seen in practice in every classroom, where lessons include learning intentions, co-constructed success criteria, explicit modelling, and differentiated content driven by data and individual learning goals to ensure all students are challenged. The Writer’s Notebook and Big Book of Learning is utilised in each classroom to support learners.

Technology is used as appropriate within Literacy lessons, with students accessing a range of applications and devices, to enhance and deepen their learning.

Home Reading takes place across all year levels and allows students time to practise reading skills that have been modelled for them at school.