Shailer Park State School is leading the way with evidenced based reading practice.
Beginning this year, starting in the lower school they have begun a transition from the whole language approach of learning sight words to systematic synthetic phonics.
This is where students are taught letters and sounds, giving them the skill and knowledge to be able to read any word.
Once they have these decoding skills, they have the capacity to read any text throughout their lives which is the greatest gift any school can give their students.
Principal Káren Kuskey has advocated for the school’s “early years coach” Janelle Delahunty and “learning leader teacher” Hannah Bottero to lead this project across the school over the next 12 months.
Starting initially in Prep – Year Two and then moving through the school as the years progress.
The students are taught a group of sounds and then shown how to blend those sounds together to read words using “Fred Talk”.
“Our students have just started their first four-week bootcamp,” Ms Kuskey said.
“They have been assessed and placed into groups that will fill the gaps in their sound knowledge and assist them in becoming speedy blenders which leads to speedy reading.”
The students are then reassessed to track their progress.
The teachers will then know what to teach next through targeted sound sessions and decodable readers.
The teachers are looking forward to sharing the student’s success with families throughout the year and are always happy to talk to parents about their approach to learning.
Shailer Park is now open for 2023 Prep enrolments, please touch base with the office to register your interest in enrolling.
