Literacy

At Garfield Primary School, Literacy is taught through a structured, evidence-informed literacy block that provides students with daily opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills required to become successful readers and writers. Our approach is informed by the Science of Reading and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, ensuring that instruction is explicit, systematic and responsive to student needs.

Our literacy block is designed around the Big Six of Reading, with each component explicitly taught and reinforced throughout the week. These six interconnected elements are:

• Oral Language – developing vocabulary, speaking and listening skills.
• Phonological Awareness – recognising and manipulating the sounds in spoken words.
• Phonics – understanding the relationship between letters and sounds for accurate decoding and spelling.
• Fluency – reading accurately, automatically and with appropriate expression.
• Vocabulary – building knowledge of word meanings to support reading and communication.
• Comprehension – constructing meaning from a range of increasingly complex texts

This structured approach ensures that all students receive systematic instruction across every aspect of reading while providing opportunities to apply these skills through authentic reading and writing experiences.

Some of the resources and programs that we use include:

Little Learners Love Literacy

Little Learners Love Literacy is a systematic synthetic phonics program, used from Foundaiton through to Year Two. Through Little Learners Love Literacy, our teachers focus on phonemic awareness, the alphabetic code (phonics), vocabulary and linking the teaching of reading, spelling and writing.

Evidence-based literacy research stresses the importance of explicit and sequential literacy teaching from the beginning. Through using Learners Love Literacy, we ensure that this is happening in Foundation from Day 1, giving children the best possible chance of being fluent readers, writers and spellers.

Victorian Lesson Plans

The Victorian Lesson Plans (VLPs) form the foundation of our English curriculum and are used across the school to provide high-quality, curriculum-aligned instruction.

Ochre Education and Ready to Learn

To complement the Victorian Lesson Plans, Garfield Primary School incorporates units from Ochre Education and Read to Learn. These evidence-based resources provide rich, knowledge-building texts and explicit teaching sequences that strengthen students' reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing and background knowledge across a range of curriculum areas.

Ochre Education units support systematic curriculum delivery through carefully sequenced lessons, while Read to Learn provides explicit strategies that enable all students to successfully engage with increasingly complex texts and produce high-quality writing. Together, these resources ensure students experience a coherent, knowledge-rich curriculum that supports consistent teaching practices across the school.