From our

Acting Assistant Principal

Supporting Students to Become Writers

At our recent Student-Free Curriculum Day, staff continued our learning about Comprehensive Literacy and explored an evidence-based approach to supporting all young people to become writers.

Staff learnt about the Writing with All Tools continuum, which helps teachers identify the writing skills each student already has and provides guidance about how to build on these skills.

This week, our Literacy Consultant, Helen Tainsh, has continued this work with staff and students as they explore how these writing approaches and interventions can support students to become writers. It has been exciting to see staff and students working together to explore different ways that students can communicate their ideas and participate in writing.

One of the exciting ideas explored was that all students can access a writing tool. For some students, handwriting while also thinking about what they want to write can be very demanding. Providing different writing tools can help students focus on sharing their ideas.

These tools may include sensory pencils, flip charts, low-tech QWERTY keyboards and high-tech QWERTY keyboards. There is no one tool that works best for every student. Teachers are currently exploring different options with students to identify the tools that will best support each child to develop as a writer.

At our school, we believe that every student can participate in writing. We are excited to continue building on students' strengths and supporting them to communicate their ideas, create texts and develop their independence as writers.

Teachers will be happy to discuss your child's progress and development as a writer at the Term 4 Student Support Group meetings in Week 5.