Literacy & Numeracy

At St Mary’s, our Literacy and Numeracy programs are built on the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and delivered through high-impact, evidence-based teaching. Our lessons follow an explicit instruction model, ensuring concepts are taught clearly, systematically, and in manageable steps. Daily Reviews are embedded across the school to strengthen retrieval, build fluency, and support long-term learning. This consistent, structured approach ensures every student is equipped with strong foundational skills and the confidence to thrive.

Additional Teacher Model

At St Mary’s, our Additional Teacher Model ensures students receive the right help at the right time. Guided by data, we place extra teachers where the need is greatest during Literacy and Numeracy sessions, with a flexible approach that shifts each year based on cohort strengths and areas for growth. This model focuses on closing learning gaps, strengthening core skills, and extending high-achieving students. Through small-group, targeted sessions, students receive personalised support that helps them feel supported, challenged, and set up for success.

Literacy

Little Learners Love Literacy

Little Learners Love Literacy is a structured and evidence-informed approach that teaches essential early reading and writing skills in a clear, sequential way. The program emphasises phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary development, and strong connections between reading, spelling, and writing, all taught explicitly, without the use of guessing strategies. This approach supports early literacy development by helping young students build strong foundational reading and writing skills through engaging, age-appropriate, and sequential activities.

Heggerty

A structured phonemic awareness program that strengthens students’ decoding, blending, and comprehension skills through explicit daily routines. At our school, we use the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum to build strong early literacy foundations. Heggerty offers daily, explicit lessons aimed at helping students recognise, blend, segment, and manipulate the sounds. This evidence-informed approach helps ensure all students have the phonological awareness skills needed for confident reading and writing.

Spelling Mastery

A systematic spelling program that teaches students the rules and patterns of English spelling for improved accuracy and confidence. At St Mary’s, we use Spelling Mastery from Years 2–6 as part of our whole-school approach to explicit literacy instruction. This research-based program teaches students the underlying patterns and principles of English spelling rather than relying on memorisation. Spelling Mastery combines phonemic (sound–letter), morphemic (bases, prefixes, suffixes), and whole-word strategies, giving students a deep understanding of how words work. Lessons are short, structured, and systematic, with regular review and opportunities for students to practise and apply skills until they achieve mastery. This consistent, evidence-informed approach supports students to become confident, accurate spellers and strengthens their reading and writing across all learning areas.

Elastik Writing

Promotes flexible, structured, and creative writing practices, helping students plan, draft, revise, and refine their written work. At St Mary’s, we use Elastik to support the assessment and teaching of Writing. The platform provides curriculum-aligned writing tasks, clear rubrics, and detailed breakdowns of key writing components. Elastik helps teachers identify strengths and areas for growth, track student progress over time, and plan targeted teaching to improve writing outcomes.

Intervention Programs

MultiLit and MiniLit

MiniLit is an evidence-based early literacy intervention for students who need extra support in learning to read. It provides explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Delivered in small groups, MiniLit is designed to catch students early, building strong foundational reading skills that help them succeed with classroom learning.

MultiLit is a research-driven literacy program designed for older primary students who require additional support in reading. It focuses on explicit instruction in phonics, decoding, fluency, comprehension and spelling, providing targeted lessons that respond to individual learning needs. Through structured practice and high-quality teaching, MultiLit helps students develop the confidence and skills needed to engage successfully with increasingly complex texts.