Early engagement leads to literacy success
The Literate Learners for Life project has helped positively influence primary schools throughout Tasmania, but two schools on the North-West of the state are creating great outcomes for students thanks to their Literacy programs.
St Patrick’s Catholic School Latrobe and St Brigid’s Catholic School Wynyard are both finding success in using the InitiaLit program to help their students flourish in Literacy. The InitiaLit program covers Prep, Year One and Year Two and uses evidence-based whole-class teaching which builds essential core knowledge and strong foundations to create successful readers and writers in schools. Both schools are in the unique position of already having an established understanding of the InitiaLit program, as they have had experience in using InitiaLit before the Literate Learners for Life initiative was implemented at the beginning of 2022.
Three years ago, St Patrick’s Catholic School Latrobe acquired a grant through the work of Deputy Principal Kurt Atkins, for MiniLit and MacqLit to train their Teachers and Teachers’ Assistants in their framework. They funded InitaLit themselves before Catholic Education Tasmania implemented the Literate Learners for Life Initiative. St Patrick’s found success in being able to use InitiaLit as a resource in help teach their students essential literacy skills.
Their Prep class, taught by Ann Jak, who was trained in the InitiaLit framework three years ago, had an average score of 86% across the number of different testing areas that the program uses which is a testament to Ann’s great teaching. She said, “I think InitiaLit gives the children a really solid, tangible bank of tools that they can use and apply… They can now independently stretch out words, sound them out for themselves, and have greater independence with their spelling.” Ann credits the program as a guide to be able to complement her own teaching whilst engaging her students to thrive in their Literacy study.
St Patrick’s has been privileged to have teachers that are absorbed in the program and believe in InitiaLit to support their teaching. Kurt Atkins explained, “You’ve got passionate people in Tina (Tina Badcock, Literacy Practice Leader) and Mel (Melissa Marshall, Student Support Leader) who are being leaders in that area and showing what this program can do. I think if the leadership in a school sees the value in something and shows the staff the value in it, that’s where you’ll see a better uptake in a program like this.” Kurt understands that without the support and the buy-in from teachers in the classroom who are teaching students Literacy skills every day, the school would not have experienced the positive benefits that they are currently.
The school was one of the first schools in Tasmania to undertake this program. Prior to the rollout of InitiaLit statewide, School Principal Rod Linhart trusted his leadership team when they suggested the program to supplement their Literacy teaching. Mel Marshall explained some of the Literacy skills their students are developing since undertaking the InitiaLit program. “They have an increased ability to use phonics to decode, an increased ability to read high quality words, and a greater phonological awareness to name a few”. Mel believes that due to their staff’s willingness to try new things and use the data that is provided by InitiaLit to understand the effectiveness of the teaching, has helped provide the best opportunities for their students.
The staff at St Brigid’s Catholic School Wynyard built their capacity to understand the curriculum and were able to create play-based experiences to engage their younger students, getting them excited about completing their Literacy work. Staff at St Brigid’s are given the opportunity to make the learning their own by putting their own spin and style to it, to enhance and engage the students across all year levels.
Georgia Loone, the Prep teacher at St Brigid’s, explained that being able to teach the InitiaLit program comes down to confidence and it has taken some of the stress away of teaching Literacy. “Now that I know the program and I know the scripts that are provided, I just need them for reference now. I’m able to put my own spin on the teaching, and I have been able to use my training from play-based learning to bring the two things together.”
Georgia also said the work that is completed in small groups has allowed the teaching to be more explicit, and that they can ensure that students are being placed at a level that suits their needs by giving them better opportunities to learn and succeed in Literacy.
The Literacy Practice Leader at St Brigid’s Virginia Smith also credits the small group work in their Literacy teaching. “The children feel like they’re listened to. That they’re heard and you can give a student that one on one attention that can be hard in a larger space. You can praise and acknowledge their great work and celebrate them. It’s a credit to this program.”
The data that is provided by InitiaLit is colour-coded and gives clear indications of what Literacy level a student is at. This has given teachers an easier way to communicate with parents and to be able to organise interventions where required to help support students. Georgia explained, “With the data and the assessments, we’ve been able to identify from the get-go that there were certain kids that will need an intervention and we have been able to put things in place in the classroom to help support them.” Virginia agrees that data analysis is a key factor in being able to make changes in the classroom and adapting the teaching to fit exactly what a student might need.
Like St Patrick’s, the staff at St Brigid’s have found that using InitiaLit has given them further confidence to work together as a team. The entire early-year’s team is working together to reach a common goal of getting students to a benchmark Literacy standard.
Staff are willing to provide extra support beyond the four walls of the classroom to help all students in the school succeed in their Literacy. Charlene Best, the Principal at St Brigid’s explained how important it is to be working together as a staff. “As a school this program enables us to look at student learning across the years and we value the input our early years staff have in collaboratively making decisions to positively impact student achievement”.