At St Pius X we are committed to ensuring that from the moment children begin school, they engage in exceptional learning in the subject of Literacy.  In 2019, we invested in a Reception to Year Two whole-class Literacy Program named, InitiaLit. This is a research initiative of Macquarie University which is based on 30 years of research undertaken by members of the MultiLit Research Unit. Since the inclusion of the program, we are observing our students thrive with their reading, writing, spelling and communicating skills.

Our Reception students begin each day with an ‘On the Mat’ session, where skills of reading and writing are explicitly taught to the whole class. The focus is on phonological awareness, tricky words, oral segmenting and letter and sound knowledge. Following the ‘On the Mat’ session, our students participate in a range of small group and independent activities which consolidate their learning. Finally, students engage in a Storybook session. This provides opportunities for students to develop oral language, vocabulary and comprehension. Our teachers monitor student process by regularly completing individual assessments.

Results  
From the beginning of the year, our Reception students have made exceptional progress. The data below represents student progress and compares InitiaLit assessments for each child in a Reception class. The first assessment was completed at the beginning of Term 1. The second assessment was completed at the beginning of Term 2. The second assessment was similar to the first, but included specific sounds and letters that the students had been focusing on.