At St Gerard’s we are committed to developing the potential of each student which will empower them to achieve success, develop their self esteem and inspire them in a lifelong love of learning that will help equip them for the contemporary world.

Students need to be confident and competent in English to meet demands of school, employment and further education in order to be effective and informed citizens.

St Gerard’s Literacy Program endeavours to:

• Develop in students the ability to listen, speak, read, view and write effectively with confidence, purpose and enjoyment.
• Expose students to a variety of genre (language styles) to develop an understanding and appreciation of audience, purpose and structure.
• Develop in students the ability to understand, discuss and begin to critically analyse texts.
• Provide an inclusive program catering for the diversity of our students.
• Use ongoing assessment to guide explicit teaching.

The Literacy Program at St Gerard’s incorporates:

• Prep – Grade 6 : 10 hours of reading, writing, speaking and listening per week.
• Whole/small/whole Literacy Block Structure.
• Literacy Leader.
• Learning & Teaching Leader.
• Professional Learning Teams for all levels.
• Engaging learning through Interactive Reading Aloud

Literacy Intervention

We believe that each child learns at their own pace and in different ways. We have a number of programs to support the learning of students that may require some additional support in Literacy. This may be in the form of support in the classroom, a small focus group or a specific program.

The following resources and programs supplement the Literacy Program:

• Speech Pathology – through Versalearn
• Learning Support Officers (LSO's)
• Parent Helpers in the classrooms
• Library Resources
• On-Line Resources