We want our children to be readers and authors. Some basic prerequisites for a strong English program is to create contexts that are purposeful and connected to our children’s prior experiences.

Literacy involves the integration of speaking, listening and critical thinking with reading and writing. Effective literacy is intrinsically purposeful, flexible and dynamic and continues to develop throughout an individual’s lifetime. Literacy connects us with the world, allows for critical thinking and deepens our understanding within a global context.

Reading at Footscray Primary School is taught within the structure of a Reader’s Workshop. This structure allows for whole-class, small group and individual instruction using both explicit instruction and inquiry approaches.

Our Reader’s Workshops include: 

• Listening and responding to rich mentor texts 
• Foundational reading skills taught through explicit synthetic phonics 
• Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies such as inferring, questioning, summarising and synthesising
• Focus on learning to read and reading to learn at students' point of need.
• Exploration of different text types purpose, audience and structure 
• Small group targeted teaching 
• 1:1 student conferring with individualised learning goals 

Writing at Footscray Primary School is taught within the Writer’s Workshop structure. This structure allows for whole-class, small group and individual instruction using both explicit instruction and inquiry approaches.

Our Writer’s Workshops include: 

• Explicit teaching of different text types through the use of rich mentor texts 
• Handwriting including letter formation
• Systematic explicit teaching of spelling through synthetic phonics and etymology across the school
• Punctuation
• Developing students authors’ voice through the teaching of author craft 
• Writing for authentic purposes when looking at different genres 

Our philosophy is to encourage our young people to see the magic in books, analyse their world through a critical lens and see themselves as authors’ who can inspire change through the written word. Our teachers support this philosophy by providing opportunities for students to explore rich and diverse texts and create their own purposeful texts that share their thinking with the world.