English and Literacy teaching and learning at Roxburgh Homestead Primary School
The English Curriculum at Roxburgh Homestead Primary School derived from the Victorian Curriculum takes into consideration the vital importance of the components essential for successful communication. It helps create communicators who are confident, thinkers who are imaginative and citizens who are informed. The three interrelated English strands of the Victorian Curriculum are as follows:
Reading and Viewing
Writing
Speaking and Listening
Together, these strands work to develop students’ understanding, knowledge and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. From Foundation through to Grade 6, time is devoted to each of these areas in order to develop students’ abilities to send and receive information.
The teachers at Roxburgh Homestead apply a Dialogic Approach as our pedagogical model in all classroom settings as all subjects are literacy based and rich in vocabulary. For more information on Dialogic Teaching see the Dialogic tab.
Students at Roxburgh Homestead Primary School engage with texts for a variety of audiences and purposes in order to prepare them for lifelong learning. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts, including oral texts, picture books, narrative stories, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts and dramatic performances. As part of the Victorian Curriculum, increasing emphasis is placed on valuing texts and traditions from a variety of cultures, and developing an appreciation for diversity. At Roxburgh Homestead Primary School, students are encouraged to engage with literature in imaginative and critical ways so as to expand the scope of their experience.
Learning in the early years, where processes and skills are developed, transfers through to the middle and senior years of primary school where teachers and students will revisit, strengthen and develop these as needed. The learning experiences we design will help prepare students for higher education and life beyond the classroom walls. Roxburgh Park Primary School students are exposed to a wide variety of opportunities to enhance their literacy skills including library visits, school excursions and incursions, buddy reading programs and digital and 21st Century learning projects. All students work with high expectations in mind. Daily reading and writing is embedded in the school curriculum.
Using up-to-date data as the basis for decision-making, teachers provide opportunities for small group instruction so that students are exposed to the differentiated learning they need. Group rotations allow for the all-important social learning to occur.
The ultimate goal for the teaching and learning of English at our school is to create literate, lifelong learners with the ability to contribute within our global society. We value the range of experiences we can provide our students and we continue to strive for the best quality instruction for all students.