Literacy

At Horsham West and Haven PS, we believe every child deserves strong foundations in reading and writing. From the very beginning, students engage in a carefully designed, structured literacy program. Structured Literacy emphasizes five key components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This explicit and systematic approach builds essential skills and extends them year after year, ensuring students continue to grow as critical readers and effective writers. Over time, this enables them to use their literacy skills with confidence in whatever future careers, learning pathways or life endeavours they pursue.

In Foundation, students take part in daily phonological awareness lessons using the Heggerty program. These short, engaging sessions provide clear, focused instruction to help children develop vital early reading and listening skills. Key skills include recognising and working with rhyming words, syllables, onset and rhyme, and individual sounds (phonemes) through activities such as sound identification, blending, and segmenting.

Phonics

In Foundation, Year 1, and Year 2, students receive explicit and systematic phonics instruction through the Sounds-Write program. Lessons are taught daily and follow a clear sequence, helping children learn how to read and spell by building strong knowledge of the sounds in words and how they link to letters. Students learn to decode (read) and encode (spell) words by blending and segmenting sounds, and they practise these skills through structured activities and decodable texts that match their learning stage.

Literacy Daily Review

In Foundation, Year 1, and Year 2, students complete daily literacy reviews that revisit key content from previous weeks and terms. These short, focused sessions support how the brain learns best by retrieving previously learned information to strengthen understanding and consolidate it into long-term memory.

Daily reviews include practice with phonics, spelling, vocabulary, and grammar, helping students retain essential knowledge and apply it confidently in their reading and writing.

Spelling

In Years 3 to 6, students participate in daily explicit spelling instruction at their point of need using the Spelling Mastery program. Lessons are carefully sequenced and teach spelling in a systematic and structured way, helping students understand how words are built through sounds, patterns, and word parts.
Students learn and apply spelling rules, build accuracy, and develop confidence in both writing and independent word solving. The program focuses on morphemes (prefixes, roots, suffixes) and phonics to support lasting spelling success.

Fluency

In Foundation to Year 6, each day, students take part in partner reading to build their reading fluency. They read short passages aloud with a partner, focusing on expression, accuracy, and pace. Through repeated readings, students become more confident and fluent, which also helps improve their comprehension.

Writing

At our school, we focus on building strong sentence writing skills as the foundation for clear and effective communication. Inspired by The Writing Revolution, our approach teaches students how to construct well-formed sentences using specific sentence types and clear structures. We take a step-by-step, systematic approach to teaching writing genres, with a special focus on narrative and persuasive writing. Each year, students build on the skills they learned previously, gradually developing greater confidence and sophistication in their writing.

Knowledge and Literature Rich curriculum

At Horsham West and Haven PS, we understand that reading comprehension depends on both decoding skills and background knowledge. The more students know about the world, its history, geography, science, and stories, the better they can understand and connect with what they read.

Our curriculum is designed to build knowledge over time, using rich texts and meaningful topics. This helps students make connections, think deeply, and engage confidently with both fiction and nonfiction.

From Foundation through to Year 6, we use a combination of Horsham West and Haven PS-created units, Ochre Education, and Read2Learn units. We begin delivering content orally in Foundation and Year 1 and gradually progress to written texts by the end of Year 1. In the middle and senior school, we alternate between novel-focused units and Humanities-based units, covering engaging topics such as Fairy Tales and Fables, Ancient Egypt, Vikings, and beloved novels like The Twits, Matilda, and Once. We choose texts that not only build literacy skills but also encourage students to become empathetic, reflective, and socially aware individuals.

Novels like The Last Bear invite students to explore the state of the environment, encouraging thoughtful reflection on humanity’s impact on the natural world. Students investigate key moments in Australia’s history, including the journey to Federation and stories of immigration, fostering a strong sense of identity, democracy, and place. In Year 6, students engage with powerful texts and topics that unpack the challenges many have faced, from the effects of war to experiences of racism and social injustice. These units have been designed to nurture compassion, empathy, and social awareness, preparing our students to become conscientious and thoughtful citizens.

In addition to reading the text, unpacking its language, and discussing its themes, students engage in close reading, use evidence to support their thinking, and make meaningful connections to real-world issues and historical context. They complete targeted writing tasks and build vocabulary knowledge to deepen their understanding and strengthen their ability to express ideas clearly.
This work not only supports reading comprehension but also equips students with the thinking and communication skills needed to engage thoughtfully and confidently with the world around them.