English
English
Literacy instruction at Quarry Hill Primary School is based on the Science of Reading (SOR). Science of Reading refers to the body of knowledge and research that has been conducted over many years on how students learn to read and the types of instruction that work the best for most students.
Our program promotes development in key areas of reading and viewing, writing, speaking and listening as outlined in the Victorian Curriculum. We are working towards embedding best practices in literacy instruction. Literacy skills are taught daily and during this time students are exposed to a wide range of knowledge rich texts and vocabulary.
There are six big components of reading which are integrated into our reading instruction.
- Oral Language
- Phonological Awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
Grade Prep-2
Students in Grade Prep to 2 participate in daily Heggerty phonological and phonemic awareness activities.
A whole class systematic Synthetic Phonics Program (SSP) sequentially teaches children the 44 sounds and the skills of blending and segmenting these sounds to read (decode) and spell (encode). Decodable texts and passages are used for children to practise sounds and decoding skills taught in phonics lessons. Spelling words using these sounds are taught in conjunction with the decoding skills. Students learn a small number of tricky words. These are the words that may appear regularly in print but students are not yet able to decode them.
Grade 3-6
Students in Grade 3-6 engage in a knowledge based literacy curriculum where they read and write a wide range of texts while exploring different concepts and topics. Building vocabulary knowledge and understanding is embedded into all lessons. The skill development needed for phonological and phonemic awareness is continued through the daily implementation of David Kilpatrick’s One Minute Activities. Spelling is taught daily through the Spelling Mastery program.
All children at Quarry Hill Primary School are encouraged to read for enjoyment by accessing our school library on a weekly basis. Teachers read and share rich texts daily. Children receive instruction in reading fluency, by participating in fluency pairs, where students work in pairs to read the text multiple times during the week. They explore morphology (the study of words and their parts) by learning a range of prefixes, suffixes and root words. Children are explicitly taught the correct letter formation through explicit handwriting activities. When writing, children are exposed to syntax (sentence structure) as well as the purpose, structure and language features of whole texts. Texts can be written to inform, persuade or to entertain.
We are committed to ensuring that all children at Quarry Hill PS have the opportunity to become proficient in their literacy skills to help them reach their fullest potential. We have introduced a Response to Intervention (RTI) model, which includes a multi-tiered approach to instruction.
Tier 1 - Whole class evidence based instruction
Tier 2 - small group support and instruction for students identified at risk
Tier 3 - individual, intensive target instruction for students who require this level of support.
The MiniLit program is used as a tier 2 intervention for literacy in Grade Prep - 2 while MacqLit is in place to support students in Grade 3-6.
To learn more about the Science of Reading visit