The first years of formal education are pivotal to the development of young minds and their lifelong learning journey.
At Northholm Grammar, our Kindergarten to Year 2 students participate in an intensive focus on the development of literacy and numeracy skills that are fundamental to their education. Our philosophy is to provide a range of resources and strategies to develop their learning with rigour and academic intentionality.
In 2021, Northholm has appointed a Kindergarten to Year 2 Literacy and Numeracy Mentor to form a consistent and rigorous approach to these core subjects.
Mrs Corinne Smith has a wealth of expertise in teaching and specialises in building the capacity of students in these key foundational years. One focus is on delivering explicit lessons that review material with regularity to assist in moving knowledge from short to long term memory. Additionally, the philosophy of questioning plays a vital role in checking for student understanding as well as modelling and providing sequential steps.
The National Inquiry into the teaching of Literacy (2005) found that research indicated that all students learn best when teachers adopt an integrated approach to reading that explicitly teaches phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and comprehension.
The Early Years Project, delivered by Fiona Elliott from the NSW Australian Independent Schools, seeks to deliver a targeted and intentional program to develop students’ phonological awareness (the awareness of words and syllables as well as individual sounds) and phonemic awareness (the ability to isolate, blend, segment and manipulate sounds in order to use sounds in words).
During Term 1, students are primarily focusing on the development of reading skills and behaviours to aid their mathematical understanding and language of concepts. In Term 2, once students have developed a strong literacy foundation in phonological and phonemic awareness, they will engage with additional learning in numeracy.
Through a multifaceted approach towards educating the youngest students at Northholm, we aim to instil a strong foundation to continue to extend and develop students for their future endeavours.
Erin Werner
Primary Years Curriculum Coordinator
