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

Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is an intervention program for students who require additional support in reading and writing. The students are selected at Grade One Level based on individual assessment and teacher judgment. Their classroom literacy is supplemented with daily one to one teaching of thirty minutes. The program runs for twelve to twenty weeks depending on the rate of progress made by each student. Parents are encouraged to take an active role by watching lessons and helping with homework to reinforce the skills learnt in the sessions.

The following resources and programs supplement the Literacy Program:

• Speech Pathology – (Catholic Education Melbourne)
• Parent Helpers in the classrooms
• Library Resources
• On-Line Resources