At Christ Our Holy Redeemer we believe literacy is the key to lifelong learning and it is the explicit teaching of literacy skills that underpins our inquiry approach to learning. All students need to be provided with extensive time for purposeful reading, writing, speaking and listening experiences in all content areas. Independent Reading is the foundation on which our literacy program is built as students learn to read by reading and interacting with books on a daily basis. Students need to be given a substantial block of time each day to read independently on subjects of interest to them.
The goals of literacy learning at our school are developed in line with the Australian Curriculum. We believe that the teaching of English ensures that students:
- learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose
- appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue
- understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning
- develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.
Learning support in English is provided through small focused teaching groups, reading intervention groups and Reading Recovery in Year 1.