Phonics Plus

Phonics Plus is a comprehensive approach to teaching reading using the evidence-based systematic synthetic phonics approach being taught in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2. As phonics and decoding are essential buildings for reading, the inverse of these processes, encoding is integral when students are learning to spell and write. So, what is Systematic Synthetic Phonics.

Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) is built on the alphabetic principle. It is a structured, cumulative, multi sensory and evidence-based method of teaching reading whereby students are taught the link between letters and the speech sounds they represent. Our students learn sounds (phonemes) are represented by letters (graphemes). We teach children that phonemes can be blended or ‘synthesised’ to form words. Systematic Synthetic Phonics is a bottom-up approach in that instruction starts not with whole words but with the most basic sound unit, the phoneme. The reading process involves decoding or ‘breaking’ words into separate sounds that are blended together to read an unknown word. The teaching of phonics is not new to Solway, however as we delve deeper into the newly developed resources, provided by the Department, we are excited to see how the program aligns to the recently released Victorian Teaching and Learning model 2.0, and its strong evidence base. Early feedback from our littlest learners has been positive with many reporting they can read now!

Moose or Meese? Goose or Geese?

Fun fact: The reason that the plural of goose is geese, but the plural of moose is not meese comes down to the language origins or etymology for each word. Goose derives from German where is part of a group of words following this pattern such as tooth/teeth or foot/feet. However moose was added to English far more recently, only 400 years ago, from Native American English where it is not pluralised in the same way!

High Ability Writing in Year 5

Last week selected Solway year 5 students had the opportunity to work with Sue Gervay, in the PETAA workshop ‘Writing things that matter’. The following are impressive and moving excerpts from just a few of our students that day.

My name is Binka- Billie H

Cold, wet, tired she made her way through the flood. She sighed, and took a break on a rooftop, laid down her baby and it started to cry, “shhh, shh, shh. this war will end, we will survive. They won’t find us. They won’t.” And she picked it up and kept on walking.

All Binka thought of growing up was the war. All the poverty, malnutrition and death. Her Mama always said they will always get through the war together but so far she has been nothing but proved wrong. She was in a concentration camp and Binka was hiding in a barn. Sleeping in an uncomfortable haystack, peeing in a bucket, and living in constant fear of being found and shot on the spot by the Nazis.

Binka always lived in constant fear. She wondered how she survived for so long. The first six with her beloved Mama and three with her, just her. Binka’s tummy rumbled. She always felt hungry living for three years with this sickness called malnutrition ever since Mama left.

Starting school with Jax -Charlie M

RING! Went the phone while Jax was in the middle of a meeting with mum. “Please don’t answer it.” Jax pleaded.

“It’s just a small call, nothing is going to happen.”

Several moments later, mum hung up the phone with the biggest happy face you have ever seen. “A local school just asked if I could enrol you at Scrarravalley Grammar School for free. Remember that time when you made that telescope from scratch and you went on TV? Well, they saw you and the school was fascinated by your creativity.” Mum said uncertainly.

Jax had never been to school before because he was really embarrassed about his arm and face deformation. He was home schooled his whole life so Jax wasn’t ready to go yet. “Don’t make me go! Please! I don’t want to go!” He cried.

Mia in Lebanon -Alex K

A shot blasted through the street. People screamed. They ran around flailing their arms about. War broke out. Sirens wailed as tanks drove down the street. Soldiers fired their guns. Blood was flying in the air. Civilians dropped dead. It was chaos. I managed to get away with my dog Milo. We hid in a dark alleyway. We had nearly seen the end of it all.

The Fire- Gwen

The voice of a little girl echoed through the fiery bush.

The animals falling to the ground.

It was a fire. A devastating, breathtaking fire, I was the fireman carrying the hose hand in hand in horror that someone would die.

I heard the little girls yell again. I turned around and saw the flames licking at her legs.

She collapsed, I sprinted over to her, picked her up and carried her to safety.

She woke up in the ambulance with burns everywhere. She looked like she was in so much pain the poor girl.

Sarah Watkins

Acting Assistant Principal/Literacy Specialist

Grade 1/2 excursion