Literacy

Literacy at Castlemaine North Primary School

At CNPS, we believe every child can become a confident and capable reader and writer. Our approach to literacy is based on research and focuses on building strong foundations in knowledge, language, comprehension, and communication.

We use a clear and structured teaching model that includes:

explicit instruction in reading, writing, spelling, and vocabulary
shared and independent reading of rich texts, including knowledge-building units and novel studies
writing at the sentence and paragraph level to strengthen grammar and structure
opportunities to develop oral language through discussion and questioning

Literacy core components at C.N.P.S:

Each week, students engage in a range of literacy experiences:

Shared reading of high-quality fiction and non-fiction texts linked to our knowledge units
Vocabulary building through explicit teaching and meaningful use in discussion and writing
Sentence-level writing using clear models and scaffolds to support students' understanding of grammar and structure
Independent and collaborative tasks that help students apply their learning in creative and purposeful ways

We follow a gradual release model — I Do, We Do, You Do — to ensure all students are supported and challenged at their level. Teachers break learning into manageable steps, model strategies, and provide regular feedback to build fluency, confidence, and deep understanding.

Key features:

Juniors - Prep, Grade One and Grade Two

Heggerty

The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program supports your child’s early reading development by helping them hear and work with the sounds in spoken words. Through short, daily lessons, it builds their ability to hear and identify sounds.

Systematic Synthetic Phonics and decodable texts

At Castlemaine North, we use the Little Learners Love Literacy program to teach children how to read and spell by focusing on the sounds that letters and letter combinations make. Through fun, daily lessons, students practise reading and writing words using a clear, step-by-step approach. This builds confidence and accuracy by helping children understand how sounds and letters work together — a vital foundation for fluent reading and writing.

Students move through a carefully sequenced series of decodable books that match the sounds they have learned. After each new set of sounds is introduced, students read books that include only those sounds, giving them the chance to practise, build fluency, and experience success. As their knowledge grows, new sounds and more complex texts are introduced.

This systematic approach encourages students to sound out and blend words, rather than guess them. Over time, they develop the skills they need to read with confidence, independence, and understanding.

VCOP & Big Write

VCOP and Big Write is a teaching program based on the research of Ros Wilson, an expert based in the UK. It focuses on four main aspects of the writing process (VCOP) and provides children with the skills to improve their own writing through self-assessment. We have four mascots that represent each section of VCOP.

V is for Vocabulary:

Vinnie Vocabulary is our vocabulary mascot. He assists students in the use of “WOW words” in their writing. Wow words are words that are also known as ambitious vocabulary; this is based on the student’s age and ability.

C is for Connectives:

Connie Connective is our connectives mascot. She supports students in using connectives (joining words) to change their simple sentences into complex sentences.

O is for Openers:

Ollie Opener is our openers mascot. Ollie encourages students to use varied sentence starters to enhance the quality of their writing.

P is for Punctuation:

Penny Punctuation is our punctuation mascot. Children are taught the names of the different types of punctuation and they learn to use them in their writing.

BIG WRITE

The Big Write is a celebration of students’ learning and is generally conducted on a Thursday. The biggest difference between Big Write and the “everyday” writing session is the environment. The lights are tuned off, special fairy lights are turned on and quiet music is playing. Students are not allowed to talk to each other and the teacher takes this time to conference with students one to one and look at their individual writing goals. On a Monday, Talk Homework is sent home to allow the students opportunities to talk about their upcoming writing.

COLD WRITE:

A Cold Write is where students are not given the opportunity to talk about the topic before writing and the learning aides are removed. This is an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they know without the assistance of external resources. Cold Writes are usually completed once per term.

Spelling and Vocabulary Instruction - Phormes (Grade Two onwards)

CNPS uses PhOrMES (an acronym for Phonology, Orthographgy, Morphology, Etymology and Spelling) resources as the basis to teach spelling and vocabulary.

"Spelling is best taught side-by-side with word reading/decoding. This is what PhOrMeS does. Students are taught to spell words with the same target graphemes, spelling rules, morphological concepts or etymological roots they are learning to read.

Vocabulary is a critical component of literacy instruction and should be taught both during reading and within explicit vocabulary lessons. PhOrMeS covers your school’s explicit vocabulary needs. In the PhOrMes Vocabulary Scope & Sequence, new words are taught using student-friendly definitions, example sentences, morphological families and synonyms.

A key in teaching vocabulary is helping children understand morphology. Morphology is the study of the forms of words or words’ morphemes (their smallest units of meaning). Teach children the underlying patterns of meaning in English (prefixes, base words, root words and suffixes) and boost their ability to accurately predict meanings of words they have never been taught! Morphology reveals the beauty of our English language and benefits word reading, learning and spelling."

Click here to find out more about the program.

Learning to Write Great Sentences at CNPS

At Castlemaine North, we support students to become confident writers by teaching them how to write clear, high-quality sentences. Each week, students take part in short, focused writing lessons where the teacher models how to write a sentence and explains the grammar, vocabulary, or punctuation being used.

In the early years, children practise writing sentences connected to what they’re learning in class. Prep students begin with simple sentences using words from their reading books. As they progress into Year 1 and 2, students learn how to add more detail, use a variety of sentence types, and apply grammar rules they’ve been taught.

We use programs such as The Grammar Project and The Writing Revolution to guide our lessons, and include fun resources like anchor charts, colourful sentence tools, and structured sentence starters. Students are encouraged to write in response to stories, pictures, or shared texts, helping them to see writing as meaningful and purposeful.

These regular writing sessions help students develop strong foundations in grammar and sentence structure, building their confidence and setting them up for success as independent writers.

Building Knowledge and Vocabulary in the Early Years

At Castlemaine North Primary School, we help our youngest learners grow their understanding of the world and build strong language skills through shared reading and vocabulary development.

Each week, students enjoy listening to and reading rich picture books and short texts linked to the topics they’re learning about. These might include both fiction and non-fiction stories. Teachers read aloud to the class, show pictures, and ask thoughtful questions to help children understand and talk about what they’ve heard. Students may also read parts of the text together in pairs and take part in short discussions or drawing and writing tasks.

We also teach carefully chosen words from the text, guiding children to understand their meaning and how to use them through discussion, examples, and practice. This scaffolding helps students grow their vocabulary, use new words with confidence, and strengthen their reading and writing skills over time.

Text study

At Castlemaine North, we dedicate time each week to building students’ background knowledge and vocabulary through the shared reading of rich, challenging texts. These texts, whether fiction or non-fiction, are carefully chosen to connect with our big learning questions and topics

Here are some examples of units:

Grade 3/4

Senior - Grade Five and Grade Six

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