English and Literacy Curriculum

The English curriculum aims to ensure that students:

• learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose
• appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue
• understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning
• develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.

The English curriculum includes:

• Reading and Viewing
• Writing
• Speaking and Listening 

We provide an English as an Additional Language program to newly arrived students, with a focus on expanding their vocabulary and understanding of the English language and Australian culture through real life experiences.

Reading Recovery is provided for Year 1 students to assist in building effective reading and writing strategies. In all year levels, small group workshops are held to target individual student needs in reading, comprehension and writing.

Visible Learning forms a core part of the English curriculum. This provides students with clear learning goals, strategies to achieve their goal, and what they will need to do next to manage their own learning. Feedback forms an integral part of Visible Learning, enabling the students to have daily conversations about their learning and academic progress.
St Albans Heights celebrates English through special activities such as Book Week celebrations, National Literacy and Numeracy Week and Children’s Day, and students have the opportunity to attend English excursions to the theatre, author workshops, writer’s workshops and the local and state libraries.