Learning & Teaching
English in the Junior Years
At Sacred Heart Kew we use a structured approach in literacy for both Prep and Year One. Our Literacy program is supported by evidence based research and the principals of Science of Reading. These include, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
We use the program Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL). LLLL is an explicit and sequential literacy approach for teaching our children to read, write and spell with confidence. Each week children will participate in lessons that support:
• Phonemic awareness and phonics for spelling and reading
• Handwriting
• Reading fluency
• Vocabulary and comprehension.
In conjunction with LLLL, we incorporate Heggerty Phonemic Awareness into our daily Literacy teaching. Heggerty allows a fast-paced beginning to literacy lessons that provide students with opportunities to build awareness and proficiency in literacy.
Intervention in English
At Sacred Heart Kew we know that not every child learns at the same pace. Some children may require extra support or time to master taught skills. In Years 1 and 2, students who have been identified are given the opportunity to participate in Minilit Sage. This program is a Tier 2 small group program for readers who require extra assistance, providing explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic synthetic phonics for reading and spelling, letter formation, and connected text reading. Year 4-6 children participate in this program, four times a week (45 minute lessons), for a Semester.
Cybersafety Workshops
On Tuesday, we welcomed Paula Jarski, a former Victorian Police Detective, to Sacred Heart Kew. Paula worked with students in Year 3-6 throughout the day and facilitated a workshop with parents in the evening. The focus of the sessions was to promote awareness of students using digital devices appropriately and identifying good online habits.
Thank you to those who attended Tuesday night’s Cybersafety Information Session. The feedback was amazing. For those unable to attend, I have recorded the presentation for you to access via Zoom. You can click on the attached link below or copy and paste it into your web browser for access. Please note that the recording contains two files, totaling 48 minutes.
Passcode: SACREDHEART2024#
Please click the link below to read the reinforced messages from Paula's parent workshop and find a list of supportive resources.
Read some of our Year 5 student reflections below:
I really enjoyed the incursion and I was really stumped to hear that most users were aged 35-44! I was very surprised to know that so many people at our school use social media.
Lucas J
I really enjoyed the incursion today and learnt so many new things such as 10+ year olds can get arrested and go to jail for up to 10 years and that there are so many risks and scams online.
Lucy J
Cyber Safety was very interesting and here are some of the things I learned. Lots and lots of people play games or apps that they are not the correct age to use. I also learned that the average age for gaming is 35 to 44. That was very surprising to me. Lastly, I learned that there are lots of people who try to hack and that I should be careful of what I play. Overall, I learned a lot from Cyber Safety and now I know a lot more.
Abigail L
I learnt a lot about Cyber Safety, like the average age of a gamer is anywhere from 34 to 54 years of age. I also learnt that kids from only the age of ten, can go to jail for committing crimes or abusing others online. As well as that, I also learnt that most of the time people bully is because they are feeling sad or angry, and bring their feelings out on others.
Will W
I really enjoyed the talk. She reiterated some things I already knew, like not to respond to people I don't know, and not to share my password with anyone.
Lucie D