04 Mar

Explicit Teaching of Literacy Skills at Carncot School

It is widely recognised that phonological awareness and phonics are two of the critical components in learning to read. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sound structures within words. A child who has concrete phonological skills will have a strong platform on which to develop their reading, spelling and writing ability. At Carncot School, staff are fully trained and apply a structured approach, supporting the explicit teaching of phonologically-based spelling from the very first day of school. This gives each child the very best start to their acquisition of literacy skills.

All of our teachers have completed an intensive two-year development programme, with Literacy expert Liz Kane, to upskill in this approach. We are really encouraged by the results we are seeing across the school, from the first day in Year 1 through to our increasingly independent learners in the senior years. Carncot pupils benefit from being in one of a growing number of New Zealand schools who are embracing this evidence-based approach within their reading, writing and spelling programmes.

To learn more about this important teaching approach, please take a moment to watch the following interview with Liz Kane.

Please see the link here from a recent interview on the AM Show.