Literacy

At Montmorency Primary School, we are committed to nurturing a passion for Reading and Writing, ensuring our students grow into ‘lifelong literate learners’.

Our literacy instruction is grounded in the essential knowledge and skills outlined in the Victorian Curriculum English learning area. With a strong understanding of the Science of Reading, we employ a structured literacy approach to teaching reading. This method combines oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension to help students become skilled readers.

From Foundation to Year 2, our teachers use the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) phonics program, which follows a carefully sequenced progression. This program offers students numerous opportunities for purposeful practice, supported by decodable texts that align with phonics development. By the end of Year 2, most students transition away from these texts.

From Year 3 onward, our educators implement the PhOrMeS curriculum to teach decoding, spelling and word meanings. PhOrMeS includes key phonics skills (sound-letter relationships), orthography (spelling patterns), morphology (meaning parts), etymology (word origins) and semantics (whole word meanings). Throughout their learning journey, we focus on fostering a love of reading while also enhancing vocabulary development and comprehension skills.

Every day, students participate in Reading and Writing sessions during the Literacy Block, which also provides opportunities to develop Speaking and Listening skills. These are seamlessly integrated throughout our teaching and learning program. Teachers work collaboratively to design differentiated lessons that support students’ progress along the learning continuum, using the Victorian Curriculum’s age-appropriate achievement standards as a guide.

The Montmorency Primary School Instructional Model ensures that students are regularly exposed to a range of literacy skills through purposeful tasks. A consistent writing process, encompassing Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing, is embedded across the school.

We encourage students to engage in metacognition – ‘thinking about their thinking’- as they read and write. This practice helps them monitor their understanding and creative processes, making adjustments as needed. Additionally, students are encouraged to explore a broad array of topics, text types and genres, including both digital and print materials.