Mainstream

Mainstream Curriculum R-6

At Gilles Street Primary School the Australian Curriculum: History (F-6), Maths (F-6), English (F-6), Science (F-6), Languages (F-6), Health and Physical Education (F-6), Technologies (F-6), Arts (F-6), Civics and Citizenship (3-6), and Economics and Business (5-6) provides the core content of the curriculum.

Each of these learning areas incorporate the General Capabilities (Literacy, Numeracy, ICT, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Understandings, Ethical Understanding and Personal and Social Capabilities), Cross-Curriculum Priorities (Sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Culture and Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia), and the Child Protection Curriculum.

At Gilles Street Primary School students also study Performing Arts (Music and Drama), Physical Education and Spanish as specialist areas of study.

For more information on the Australian Curriculum, click here.

English Language and Literacy

At Gilles Street Primary School we have developed a set of essential agreements (Reception - 6) for the teaching, learning and assessment of reading, writing, handwriting and spelling.

Reading
The teaching of reading at Gilles Street Primary School is based on the six components of reading:

• Oral language development and early literacy experiences
• Phonological Awareness, especially phonemic awareness - all staff have been trained in PLD (Promoting Literacy Development) for systematic, explicit phonics and language teaching
• Letter-sound knowledge (phonics) and word knowledge
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Comprehension

Writing
The teaching of writing at Gilles Street is systematically and explicitly scaffolded. We provide examples and models of different text types and provide students with opportunities to practice making decisions about their writing and receiving specific feedback. We develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills for beginning writing. We explicitly teach different genre/written text types for both academic and social success by developing their understandings of purpose, schematic structure and language features. Functional grammar is a focus using Writing Plus program and we moderate using Bright Path.

Handwriting
The teaching and learning of handwriting is explicit, developmental and linked to all aspects of the literacy programme. It is based on the DfE: Handwriting in the South Australian Curriculum document. It includes the developmental stages of emergent/early, transitional and extended writing.

Spelling
At Gilles Street Primary School the teaching and learning of spelling is explicit and linked to all aspects of our literacy programmes. It is inclusive of all learning areas and considers wider community contexts familiar to the learners.

Our balanced spelling program (PLD) focuses on explicit direct instruction on synthetic phonics.

We use a number of assessment tools that include oral reading fluency, PLD, phonics test and support these skills through Minilit and Multi-Lit programs.