Literacy & Numeracy
At Mitcham Primary School, our Teaching and Learning Programs are designed to encourage and promote a love of lifelong learning. We strive to produce capable, confident learners who are aware of their achievements and able to articulate their next steps.
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We utiilise the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 and have a consistent Instructional Model across the school. This Model is called GANAG and is an acronym for Goal, Access Prior Knowledge, New Information, Apply New Information and Reflect on the Goal. These are key components of Explicit Teaching and are backed by the Science of Learning.
Teachers establish safe, positive and challenging environments where students enter their classrooms prepared to learn. Each teaching team plans collaboratively using data from their cohorts and the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 to structure and sequence learning opportunities so that students can build on prior knowledge. Teachers explicitly teach Literacy and Numeracy through deliberate explanation and demonstration of new learning, offering opportunities for students to have guided practice towards mastery. Students have opportunities to apply and extend their learning through supported application of tasks and have voice and agency over how they do so.​
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Curriculum programs are provided through a mix of classroom and specialist teaching, and strongly supported by a well-equipped school library, STEM space, visual art and music rooms, extensive resources and equipment.
We believe that all students can and will learn and grow by enhancing decision-making, problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Literacy
The English curriculum comprises Reading, Writing (including Spelling) and Speaking and Listening. Mitcham Primary School’s vision is to create a passionate learning community where students are supported and challenged to achieve their best. As such, we pride our Literacy program on being based on developing literate students who are both skillful in the features of Literacy and passionate about reading and writing.
Mitcham Primary School takes a holistic approach to literacy instruction incorporating instruction in systematic synthetic phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This integrated approach, which addresses each of the Five Big Ideas of Reading, ensures that each child is given the tools they require to learn to read successfully. Our reading program follows a structured scope and sequence and is planned collaboratively in teaching teams based on student data and interest. Reading is embedded within Humanities units to incorporate rich, authentic texts that build students’ interest in, and knowledge of, History, Geography, Economics, Science, Civics and Citizenship.
Within Writing, our students thrive in an environment that fosters creativity, choice and agency. Students are given the opportunity to regularly write freely about topics and genres. This actively promotes their engagement in writing. Students respond positively to feedback when they meet regularly with their teacher to confer over their pieces and establish learning goals. Each day, students are exposed to a mini lesson, where their teacher models skills, techniques and styles of writing to students, which directly address areas of improvement noted in students’ previous writing. At the end of each lesson, students have the opportunity to share in the “Author's Chair.” Students can share selected parts of their writing, interesting words they are proud of and more. It gives a chance to celebrate the writing, but also for students to write for a purpose. They are then given feedback in a meaningful way from their peers and can take ideas away with them for their next writing adventure.
At Mitcham Primary School we aim for each child to be a lifelong reader and writer, with the confidence and ability to speak their mind and present their ideas. Students have many opportunities during their schooling to speak in pairs, small groups, to their classes and year levels and even at whole-school events.
Numeracy
The Mathematics program at Mitcham Primary School aims to develop numerate learners who engage with Mathematics in their everyday lives. Our focus is to build understanding, reasoning, problem solving, fluency, and language usage by our students so that they can solve problems and deal with situations involving Mathematics in day-to-day life.
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Mathematics is delivered through daily lessons and activities, where children experience learning Mathematics through a range of contextual and relevant situations. This is done by following the developmental progression of the CPA model of learning - Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract. Whereby students have opportunities to engage with learning using hands-on materials, are explicitly shown how to represent these using drawings and finally can take the learning to the abstract level (using algorithms).
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Students’ progress is closely monitored and measured against the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 using developmental rubrics created in consultation with the child. Staff work collaboratively to monitor student learning growth and plan effective instruction accordingly. Numeracy Intervention and Extension Programs are also in place for students who require additional assistance and extension in this area.
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​Our Mathematics program is sequentially structured to follow development achievement steps and is aligned with Victorian Curriculum 2.0. The sub-strands taught in Mathematics are: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability. This content is taught through the proficiencies; Fluency, Problem Solving, Reasoning, and Understanding.