At Glen Huntly Primary School, our Literacy program is designed to develop confident, capable and engaged readers, writers and communicators. Literacy is taught for two hours every day, ensuring students have consistent and meaningful opportunities to build and apply their skills.

A key component of our program is a dedicated 25-minute daily phonics session, where students explicitly learn the relationship between sounds and letters to support strong reading and spelling development. This is complemented by a broader Literacy block that integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Our teaching follows an explicit instruction model aligned with the Victorian Learning and Teaching Model (VLTM). Teachers clearly model skills and strategies, guide student practice and provide opportunities for independent application. Lessons are carefully structured to build on prior knowledge and support students at their point of need.

We place a strong emphasis on:

• Developing reading comprehension and fluency
• Building vocabulary and oral language skills
• Teaching writing across a range of genres and purposes
• Encouraging critical thinking and effective communication

Teachers use a range of strategies, including targeted small group instruction, rich mentor texts and purposeful writing tasks. Learning is differentiated to ensure all students are supported and challenged.

At Glen Huntly Primary School, we aim to foster a love of Literacy, equipping students with the skills and confidence they need to succeed across all areas of learning.

Literacy Learning Across the School

Literacy Understandings Prep – Grade 6

Reading and Viewing Prep to – Grade 2

Students engage in a variety of texts for enjoyment. They read and view written and multimodal texts designed to entertain but also to inform and persuade. By year 2, students understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features.

Students read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information.

Reading and Viewing Grades 3-6

Students read and view written and multimodal texts with primarily aesthetic purposes as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. They explain how text structures assist in understanding the text and learn to understand how language features, images and vocabulary influence interpretations of events.

Our students analyse and explain literal and implied information from a variety of texts and explain their responses to them.

Literacy Understandings Prep – to Grade 6

Writing Prep -Grade 2

Students at this level progress with the written word quite rapidly. Young students create short texts using symbols, letters and words, reviewing their own text and additionally copy and write letters, symbols and numbers.

Students then create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence level grammar, word choice, spelling and punctuation.

Writing 3-6

Students at this level will move towards planning, drafting and publishing informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over selecting print and elements appropriate to the audience and purpose.

Students will re-read and edit texts for meaning, structure grammatical choices and punctuation. They use a range of software including word processing programs to construct written text and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements.

Tutor Learning Program

Highlights of the GHPS Literacy Program

• Use of quality Mentor Texts and Home Reading resources to support reading/writing focus lessons
• Daily 25-minute systematic, structured phonics program (Little Learners Love Literacy) Prep-Grade 2
• Daily reviews
• MiniLit Phonics Support Program
• Dedicated Library/Research Teacher/Area
• Detailed Instructional Model for Literacy
• Continual high gains in NAPLAN results (Reading and Viewing/Writing)
• Participation in the research based Seven Steps to Writing Success program