Shelley Primary School has adopted a whole school approach to teaching English underpinned by guiding documents reflecting best practice and based on the whole school ISTAR (Inspire, Show, Try/Transfer, Apply, Review) approach to lesson design and implementation. Overlaying all teaching in the English area is the aim to promote enjoyment and a sense of purpose to encourage students to be lifelong learners and to achieve to their optimum potential.
Our English blocks ensure teaching is explicit, learning is inclusive, and that concepts, skills and processes are continuously developed upon.
Our teaching and learning programs are balanced and integrate the three strands of the WA English curriculum; Language, Literature and Literacy. All students have the opportunity to consolidate learning through guided, collaborative, and independent activities. Learning is differentiated and personalised to ensure all students progress in listening, reading, viewing, writing, and creating.
Speaking and Listening is explicitly taught and provides all students the opportunity to succeed through direct scaffolding and visible feedback. Reading skills and strategies are explicitly taught and small group reading allows opportunities for targeted teacher support.
Students from Kindergarten to Year 2 follow the synthetic phonics program ‘Letters and Sounds’ and Years 3-6 follow ‘Sound Waves’ which allow opportunities for students to extend and apply early phonic and morphology (parts of words that affect meaning such as prefixes and suffixes) skills to more complex words. Students are also encouraged to learn high frequency words to support their early reading development and spelling.
Writing skills are developed through the repeated practice of small steps that lead to larger, cohesive pieces from a variety of text types and genres. Students plan and publish their writing through a variety of activities including handwriting and electronic mediums.
Independent reading is highly valued. Developing fluency is promoted through home reading and Bug Club in the early years, moving onto Literacy Pro as the students are able to use more of their own agency in the selection of texts. Home reading texts are not meant to be challenging. They have been set by the teacher to help children consolidate what they have learned in class and to promote the enjoyment of reading. We also have an extensive and highly engaging library. Students are encouraged to keep track of their home reading through their home reading logs and later through the use of the Literacy Pro website.