At St Leonards Primary School, our English program is grounded in the Victorian Curriculum and delivered through the interconnected strands of Literacy, Literature, and Language. We use evidence-based practices to develop confident, capable communicators who are fluent readers, skilled writers, and thoughtful listeners and speakers.

Our approach is built around explicit teaching of the Big 6 of Reading: oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These foundational skills are embedded across all year levels to ensure every student has the tools they need to become strong, independent readers.

In Foundation to Year 2, we implement Phonics Plus, a structured, systematic phonics program that supports students in decoding and spelling through consistent, daily instruction. This ensures our youngest learners build a solid foundation in reading and writing from the start.

Across the school, students engage with rich, high-quality texts through carefully designed, text-based learning units. These texts form the basis of deep vocabulary development, comprehension, and writing opportunities. Students practise writing at the word, sentence, and full-text level, with explicit instruction focused on both the mechanics and the craft of writing.

Our learning model (coming soon) underpins everything we do, supporting students to understand how they learn best, and empowering them to take ownership of their progress.