LITERACY AND NUMERACY

At Reservoir Views Primary School, we are student centred and focus on each individual as a learner. We teach using the Victorian Curriculum as a continuum of learning for our students throughout their schooling.

Teaching and Learning of Literacy

‘Literacy is vital for every child and young person, and underpins their ability to engage in education, reach their potential and fully participate in the community.’ – John Hattie 2004

At Reservoir Views Primary School we are committed to developing strong literacy skills in all our students. We understand that learning to read and write is not a natural process and therefore, students require explicit, systematic instruction with many opportunities for guided and independent practice. Our students are involved in daily, explicit instruction in the ‘Big 6’ of Reading including:

Oral Language
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary
Fluency
Comprehension

Oral language plays a major role in our F-2 learning program. Teachers model and provide multiple, daily opportunities for students to develop their oral language skills through story-telling, collaborative learning opportunities, developmental play and show and tell.

Our phonics instruction is informed by current research which focuses on phonemic awareness and developing students’ knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. Our students are given daily opportunities to develop their reading skills through guided and independent practice including reading a range of decodable texts. Vocabulary and comprehension are taught explicitly across F-6 through the use of rich fiction and non-fiction mentor texts that build students’ background knowledge, improve the breadth and depth of their vocabulary and develop their understanding of text features and structures. Students in 3-6 students participate in daily morphology study that supports both reading and spelling.

Writing at Reservoir Views includes explicit teaching of transcription skills including letter formation, handwriting, punctuation and spelling as well as text generation including planning, drafting, editing, word choice, grammar, text structure and genre. Students in F-2 focus on developing their sentence-level writing as well as experimenting with a range of narrative and informative text types. In 3-6, students’ writing is extended to paragraph and text level as they develop more control over text structures and language features.

In addition to strong Tier 1 classroom instruction, we provide Tier 2 reading intervention for students who require some more support in reading. The small-group program MacqLit consists of MiniLit for F-2 and MultiLit for 3-6 students.

Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

Numeracy is part of every aspect of our lives, and at RVPS we believe it is fundamental for students to develop confidence and competence in Mathematics. Students participate in at least five maths lessons each week, which incorporate the four Mathematics Proficiencies:

Understanding – building connected, transferable knowledge of mathematical concepts
Fluency – choosing and carrying out procedures accurately, flexibly and efficiently
Reasoning – explaining, justifying and proving mathematical thinking
Problem-solving – using mathematics to plan, model and solve unfamiliar real-world and abstract problems

Maths is practised throughout the day through fluency sessions that build automaticity with number facts, and through lessons that include retrieval and review of previously learnt content, hands-on materials, games, explicit teaching, and guided and independent practice. Students are taught to make connections between mathematical concepts and to apply a range of strategies to solve problems in different contexts. Their oral language and mathematical reasoning are strengthened through targeted questioning and a focus on explaining their thinking.

Teachers use a range of assessments to monitor students’ knowledge, skills and understanding in each area of mathematics, ensuring that the next steps in learning are well matched to each student’s needs.