On Monday August 4, Kindergarten celebrated their 100th Day of School. The Kinder classroom was taken over by a large number of 100 year olds who celebrated their learning journey in kindergarten with a variety of 100-themed activities. We even had a fashion parade to show off our outfits. Special thanks to all the staff who generously gave extra time to help us make the day special for the children-we couldn't have done it without you!

A huge thank you to the Kindy parents for their efforts in dressing their children as 100-year-olds and for coming along to celebrate this very special day with us. We hope you enjoyed it as much as the students did.

InitiaLit comes alive at SJA

St John the Apostle has been on the CE Catalyst journey. Over the past 4 years we have worked with a number of highly experienced Educational Consultants including Dr Lorrainne Hammond and Toni Hatten Roberts. This week we welcomed Ian Luscombe back to SJA to continue to work with our Staff embedding High Impact Teaching Practice and specifically looking at the learning behaviours of our students and how we can continue to support them during Explicit Direct Instruction. 

Centered on improving learning outcomes, our High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) approach is based on the Science of Learning and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and will help us realise our goal of “high impact teaching practice is visible in every classroom”.

Ian Luscombe supported out staff in providing feedback on a number of teaching strategies and was able to demonstrate lessons and share his knowledge on the Behavioural Science of learning through a targeted Staff meeting.

Part of the implementation of the CE Catalyst Program is to introduce targeted programs that continue to provide opportunities for our students to be the best they can possibly be in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy. 

Last term we implemented K-2 InitiaLit Program. InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundation to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 2).

InitiaLit–Foundation focuses on two main components:

1. Phonics, to systematically and explicitly teach the basic alphabetic code in a set sequence. In addition to learning letter-sound correspondences and how these are applied to reading and spelling, children will be introduced to common morphemes and simple grammatical concepts.
2. Vocabulary, oral language and listening comprehension through quality children’s literature. Detailed lessons, including writing tasks, are provided for each of the storybook titles selected for use with the program.

Our students in Kinder are really enjoying the time to identify the letters and sounds this week.

InitiaLit–1 continues on from InitiaLit–Foundation in providing an explicit and effective model for teaching reading, spelling and related skills to children in their second year of school. As in InitiaLit–F, InitiaLit– Year 1 focuses on the two main components of:

1. Phonics, to systematically and explicitly teach the basic and advanced alphabetic code in a set sequence. In addition to learning letter-sound correspondences and how these are applied to reading and spelling, children will be introduced to common morphemes and simple grammatical concepts.
2. Vocabulary, oral language and listening comprehension through quality children’s literature. Detailed lessons, including writing tasks, are provided for each of the storybook titles selected for use with the program.

By Year 2, many of the students will be well on their way to reading independence. The program builds on the skills taught in InitiaLit–F and InitiaLit–1, with the focus shifting now to consolidating children’s reading and spelling skills, working specifically on reading comprehension, fluency, spelling and vocabulary.

InitiaLit– Year 2 has four main components:

1. This component reviews phoneme-grapheme correspondences and spelling concepts taught in InitiaLit–1 and teaches the remainder of the advanced alphabetic code systematically and explicitly. Children will also learn new spelling rules and morphological concepts.

1. Reading comprehension and fluency. In this component, children will be taught comprehension strategies explicitly and how to apply them to different types of text. They will also be given regular opportunities to work on reading fluency through echo, choral and paired reading.
2. Grammar. Children will be explicitly taught key grammatical features and how to apply them to a writing task.
3. Vocabulary, oral language and comprehension through children’s literature. Detailed lessons are provided for each of the 15 storybook titles selected for use with the program, including detailed writing tasks. Two novel studies are included for use towards the end of the year.

How can parents and carers support the program?

For young readers, one of the most effective ways parents and carers can offer additional support at home is by spending as little as 10 minutes each day on supported book reading. In addition to sharing a wide range of books, in which you explore together the joy of reading – delving into imaginary worlds, exploring playful language, and investigating special topics of interest. Over the coming weeks your child will continue to take home sequential decodable readers. These are books designed specifically to offer plenty of opportunities for children just starting to read to develop decoding and fluency skills. If you have any questions, your child’s teacher is the most valuable resource.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

 - Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Happy reading.

Jo Reed