Literacy

Warrnambool Primary School believes that with the correct evidence-based instruction and time that all students can learn to read and write. Our teaching practices are underpinned by explicit instruction utilising the ‘I DO, YOU DO, WE DO’ model. We believe that consistency, structure and routines underpinned by staff coaching play a significant role in us continually striving to improve outcomes for students.

Our Literacy Block

Our Literacy block is encompassed by a systematic, synthetic phonics program – Sounds-Write. It provides all classrooms with support to teaching reading, spelling and writing. Sounds-Write provides structured, sequential steps from teaching simple CVC words like ‘sat’ too much more complex, five and six-syllable words like personification.

Reading at Warrnambool Primary School

Reading at Warrnambool Primary School is taught through a thorough Scope and Sequence plan that begins the teaching of reading through building student’s sounds and decoding knowledge, vocabulary, comprehension and making links to Sounds Write. Students learn to read decodable texts following sounds they have learned in Sounds-Write. Students achieve success by building on sounds on a fortnightly basis. Teachers share quality literature, discussing vocabulary, comprehension and making links to writing. Writing at Warrnambool Primary school is taught through a thorough Scope and Sequence plan that begins the teaching of writing through building students oral language, vocabulary, linking to Sounds-Write, writing sentences and paragraphs, and building to complete texts. Quality writing is created through modelled texts by first expanding, developing students’ oral language skills, and then teaching the necessary steps for exceptional sentence, paragraph and text construction.