English and Literacy

At Mount Dandenong Primary School, educating learners to be literate is our core business. Students are exposed to a language and literature rich environment with explicit teaching of key skills and content in each of the three language modes: Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening.

The Victorian Curriculum recognises that:

The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. The study of English helps young people develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace. It helps them become ethical, thoughtful, informed and active members of society and plays an important part in developing the understanding, attitudes and capabilities of those who will take responsibility for Australia’s future.

https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/english/introduction/rationale-and-aims

The English curriculum at MDPS aims to ensure that students:

• learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose
• appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue
• understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning
• develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.

Our expert teachers work in teams to plan learning experiences that use a range of high impact teaching strategies to ensure students are successful learners of English. The daily literacy block uses the workshop model to engage students in language learning. The CAFÉ reading approach, Writer’s Workshop and SMART Spelling approaches are the key instructional frameworks used within the school to ensure best-practice teaching and learning in literacy.