At Carrington Primary School our literacy program is based around a whole school focus on Reading and Writing. We utilise a range of resources including print and digital media, letter and word cards and iPads to engage our learners and provide them with daily experiences.

The school focuses on a Multisensory Structured Language (MSL) approach to teaching and learning ensures our students are equipped with best practice literacy supports. MSL incorporates the 5 essential steps to reading and writing including: identifying letter sounds, sounding out words, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.

Phonics instruction is taught through explicit teaching of foundational literacy skills in F-2 using both Phonics Plus and MSL together. The program is based on approximately 25 minutes of daily systematic synthetic phonics teaching. Students actively participate in sessions where they select and are guided towards books that are appropriately levelled for them. Skills and strategies are developed further to ensure students are lifelong learners. A wide range of resources, both print and digital, are accessed every day both in the classroom and from the school library.

At Carrington the writing approach is centred around a multi-genre approach, ensuring students have a wide range of exposure. Teachers model writing techniques explicitly and guide students through the 5 stages of writing: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Each student has a Writer’s Notebook to record ideas, thoughts, and feelings that they can expand upon further during creative writing time. These skills and strategies allow our students to become competent and confident writers.

Speaking and listening is developed across our school through all curriculum areas. We nurture and develop skills through discovery, responding to texts, creative play, inquiry work, collaborative learning opportunities and tasks, conferencing, group tasks and through student leadership opportunities.