English

At Windang Public School, English is taught in alignment with the NSW K-10 English syllabus, focusing on students developing skills in areas such as speaking, listening, reading and writing across a variety of texts and purposes. Drawing on evidence-based practices such as explicit instruction to break down complex skills into manageable steps. This research-informed methodology ensures students develop strong literacy foundations through scaffolded support, targeted feedback, and engaging, purposeful learning experiences.

Phonics and Reading

Reading is the key element of literacy competence. It involves two key processes: learning how to decode print and understanding what the print means. For children to become successful readers they must be able to crack the alphabetic code through a systematic synthetic phonics approach. If children can’t decode the words on a page they will fail in their journey to access a text.

At Windang Public School, students are explicitly taught the knowledge of letters and sounds by following the SATPIN scope and sequence. Students are taught the skills of sounding out and blending sounds to decode words. The skills are practised over and over to achieve mastery. Decodable readers are used as the conduit between phonics and reading. Children engage in decodable texts to build the necessary skills to enable them to become proficient readers and access the limitless opportunities of skilled reading.

Once students have effectively cracked the alphabetic code, more advanced rich texts are used to model fluency and comprehension. Reading development takes place through Fluency Development Lessons (FDLs) and Guided Reading activities. These lessons focus on enhancing students’ ability to read with automaticity and prosody (expression), both of which are required to effectively comprehend a text. Vocabulary is also a key focus during these explicit lessons.

Writing

At Windang Public School, we aim to explicitly teach our students the knowledge and skills needed to compose ideas accurately and purposefully in written formats. Writing is viewed as an essential skill that supports students in organising their thoughts, thinking critically, engaging relevant audiences, and communicating clearly. Drawing on the Science of Learning, our approach uses explicit instruction and evidence-based practices to break down writing into manageable steps, provide scaffolded support, timely feedback, and foster independent writing skills.

A yearly Curriculum Map guides the writing purpose each term—whether to inform, entertain, or persuade—along with the text form and schema. Each unit consists of 4–5 lessons per week and is designed to build student knowledge and understanding of texts through modelled, guided, and independent activities.

Our lesson plans emphasise clear, direct teaching through logical sequencing and breaking complex skills into manageable components. Key elements include focusing on critical content, systematic instruction, eliciting frequent responses, making learning visible, carefully monitoring progress, providing feedback, and maintaining a brisk instructional pace. Weekly lessons combine both micro and macro instruction to build strong foundations in sentence and text structure, planning, and revision. Through this comprehensive approach, we ensure students develop the confidence and ability to use writing as a lifelong tool for learning, problem-solving, and effective communication.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge holds the key to improving language and communication, reading and writing achievement. According to research students should increase their vocabulary by 2000 to 3000 words per year, 400 of which should be taught directly. At Windang Public School, we teach vocabulary through explicit and systematic way. Alongside reading lessons, the majority of the vocabulary lessons occur during the morning routine and are consolidated through the day.