Early Years Literacy

The Early Years Literacy Strategy is a comprehensive and strategic approach to literacy achievement in the early years of schooling. 

The Early Years Literacy Program’s essential features are: 

• a daily, focused two-hour classroom literacy session
• case management of students who require additional assistance
• strategically planned home/school partnerships
• the identification of an Early Years Coordinator
• whole school commitment.

Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery is a one to one early intervention program that provides an opportunity for students who, after one year of schooling, have not yet established effective reading and writing processes

Students in the Program receive a daily thirty-minute Reading Recovery lesson in addition to the regular classroom reading and writing program.

The Reading Recovery Program for each student continues until they have developed strategies that will allow them to participate effectively in the reading and writing activities in their classrooms. This usually takes between twelve and twenty weeks.

Additional Assistance and Literacy Support Programs

Jells Park Primary School provides Additional Assistance and Literacy Support.  The school is fortunate to have two specialist literacy trained teachers and a designated time allocation to implement such programs which cater for the individual needs of some of the children in the Grade 2, 3 and 4 areas.

At the Grade 2 level a small number of students are participating in a Literacy Support Program.  Intensive, individualised literacy sessions assist in the acquisition of independent problem solving skills in both reading and writing.

An Additional Assistance Program is provided for the children in Grades 3 and 4 with emphasis on comprehension and developing the student’s ability to understand the author’s intent when reading. These students work in small groups according to their needs.

As part of the Learning Improvement Plan for some students in Grades 5 & 6 who require extra additional assistance in the area of reading and comprehension, Jells Park Primary School offers the SRA Corrective Reading - Decoding Program.

This Program focuses specifically on decoding and comprehension skills. Students are taught in small supportive groups by a trained Corrective Reading teacher. The Corrective Reading teacher  has expertise working with older children and their specific Literacy needs.

Prior to entry to any of the Programs, children are formally assessed, with ongoing monitoring forming an integral part of all programs.

Buddy Reading

The entire school enjoys 15 minutes of Sustained Quiet Uninterrupted Reading (SQUIRT) after lunch each day.

During this time the "Buddy Reading" Program operates with a group of Year 6 students "buddying up" to support and share the reading efforts of selected students from Years 1 to 3.

The "little" buddies benefit from the extra reading mileage and the guidance offered by the "big" buddies who have been tutored on how to provide effective prompts.