The RWPS overarching English goal is to inspire, challenge, and foster a love of English, cultivating each student into enthusiastic and proficient readers, writers and speakers.

Throughout the day, students engage in various aspects of English. At each year level, they participate in a tailored Literacy Block encompassing reading, spelling, Daily Writing, handwriting, and grammar components. Although Literacy Blocks are customised for each year level, they share common elements.

Reading Hierarchy/Warm-up

Effective reading instruction is based on recognition, manipulation, sight words, syllables, fluency and comprehension, which are all included in a Reading Hierarchy/Warm up.

Explicit Reading Instruction

Reading skills are explicitly taught based on recognition, manipulation, sight words, syllables, fluency, and comprehension.

Explicit Spelling Instruction

Spelling skills are explicitly taught using the Jolly Learning program.

Paired Reading

During Paired Reading, readers read aloud to a partner. This practice aims to enhance fluency, decoding skills and active reading by discussing meaning of texts. Paired Reading fosters collaboration, promotes cooperation, and facilitates peer learning. It enables students to take turns reading, offering feedback to one another to monitor comprehension.

Reciprocal Reading

Reciprocal Reading is scaffolded talk about a text in a small group setting that develops comprehension strategies. It may be completed with the teacher, but often independent of the teacher. Students who participate in this practice are encouraged to read, talk and think their way through the text. This is used at various times in Year Three – Six.

Reading with a Pencil

An active reading strategy taught from Year One to Six, Reading with a Pencil encourages students to think critically about their reading. It assists students in identifying important information when reading and visually separating it from the surrounding text.

Daily Writing

Daily Writing introduces students to new vocabulary and focuses on understanding and using various sentence structures.

Handwriting

Handwriting is completed daily to support letter formation and writing stamina. Sessions include explicit modelling of letter formation as well as the use of whiteboards, Writing Times books and modelled/copied writing.

Genre Writing

Genre Writing is explicitly taught outside of the Literacy Block, educating students on language features, vocabulary, and structures specific to various genres following the RWPS Instructional Model.