foundation 2025

English

This term, Foundation students will continue to build and consolidate their understanding of the alphabet and deepen their awareness that texts are made up of words and groups of words that carry meaning. Students will participate in targeted reading sessions aimed at developing a range of reading strategies to support them in becoming confident, independent readers.

As part of our reading program, small focus groups will be introduced. These sessions will give students the chance to explore unfamiliar words, learn and practise helpful reading strategies, and engage in meaningful discussions about the books they read.

In writing, students will continue working on tasks that align with our Sounds Write spelling program. They will further develop their understanding of the differences between letters, words, and sentences, including the use of correct punctuation to form complete sentences. As their confidence grows, students will be encouraged to take risks in their writing and ‘have a go’ before seeking help. They will also continue to apply letter-sound knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.

We will maintain a strong focus on correct letter formation, pencil grip, and posture.

Our approach to literacy is grounded in explicit, systematic instruction of essential skills, including word reading, spelling, oral fluency, handwriting, and syntax. Drawing on the latest evidence-based practices, we will use a variety of texts to model comprehension, explicitly teach vocabulary, and continue building students’ background knowledge across subject areas.

Spelling

Students will continue to engage in the Sounds-Write spelling program, a structured, synthetic phonics approach grounded in the science of reading. This program provides daily, multisensory, code-based activities that support a systematic and sequential approach to learning.

Our daily Sounds-Write phonics lessons are designed to strengthen students’ reading and spelling skills. As they progress through the year levels, students will continue to apply, develop, and refine these foundational literacy skills in increasingly complex ways.

Through the Sounds-Write program, students gain essential conceptual knowledge, including:

• Letters are symbols (spellings) that represent sounds.

• A single sound can be represented by one, two, three, or four letters.

• The same sound can be spelled in multiple ways (one sound – different spellings).

• A single spelling can represent more than one sound (one spelling – different sounds).

In addition, students build on key phonemic awareness skills:

• Blending – combining individual sounds to read words.

• Segmenting – breaking words into their individual sounds.

• Phoneme Manipulation – adding, deleting, or changing sounds within words.

These skills form the foundation for confident, accurate reading and spelling as students continue their literacy journey.

Mathematics

This term, Foundation students will continue to work on understanding numbers to 20. They will match the number name, numeral and collection of objects, and reasoning with number sequences. Students will develop fluency counting forwards and backwards in meaningful contexts, including stories and rhymes. We will begin looking at whole-part-whole relationships of numbers, using lots of hands-on activities and manipulatives to aid addition strategies and skills. Students will also be exploring the language of position and location, and use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, heavier or holds more while using language associated with measurement attributes.

Integrated Studies

This term, we will be investigating the topic of 'Fairy tales', which will be interwoven within our English program. Students will learn about the elements of fairy tales that distinguish them from other types of fiction. They will learn that fairy tales have elements of character, plot, and setting that are found in other types of fiction, and gain an understanding of the “lessons and morals” in fairy tales. By becoming familiar with particular fairy tales, students will be able to add these tales to their repertoire of stories that they can retell orally. Reading these fairy tales will help Foundation students develop a strong foundation for the understanding of other fictional stories in later years.

Science

Students will also be investigating the properties and uses of different materials as part of our 'What's it Made of?' Chemical Sciences unit. They will develop skills of observing, describing, comparing and communicating as they explore what things are made of in the school environment and properties of the materials used to make them.