English holds a high priority at St. Leo's. All the children are involved in a daily two hour uninterrupted Literacy block for reading and writing skills.
The principles that underpin Literacy are 'High Expectations for all Students', 'Focused Teaching' and 'Engaged Learning'.
The English Curriculum aims to teach Reading and Writing through a balanced and structured approach where student progress is continually monitored using established assessment techniques.
The school has implemented the use of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark and Assessment System. This involves ongoing assessment and teaching targeting students’ specific learning needs in Reading. The continuum of Literacy Learning is also used to inform our whole school planning. In additon, the school has adopted the Assessment Research Centre Online Testing System (ARCOTS) to target our students’ needs in Reading.
Students actively engage in shared reading and writing experiences, learning centre activities, individual, small and whole class tasks. They are exposed to a range of genre, print and electronic texts.
St. Leo's also has the Reading Recovery program which is an intervention program for children in the Junior school.