Primary Literacy Overview 

Derby District High School provides a structured and supportive literacy curriculum that caters for the needs of all students from Kindergarten to Year 6, recognising that every student is at a different point in their learning journey. 

Our Kindergarten program is underpinned by the Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines and the Early Years Learning Framework. Learning experiences are age-appropriate, play-based and responsive to the diverse family, cultural, linguistic and community backgrounds of our students. 

From Pre-primary to Year 6, literacy learning is aligned with the Western Australian Curriculum. This provides clear content and achievement standards that guide planning, teaching, assessment and reporting.  

At Derby DHS, literacy is taught explicitly and consistently across the school. We use Explicit Direct Instruction and Explicit Lesson Design to introduce new concepts, model skills and provide guided practice. Daily Review is used to revisit key knowledge and skills, helping students move learning from working memory into long-term memory and reducing cognitive load. 

Our whole-school literacy approach focuses on The Big 6 of Literacy: 

• Oral language 

• Phonological awareness 

• Phonics 

• Vocabulary 

• Fluency 

• Comprehension 

Students are supported through clear routines, high expectations and carefully sequenced teaching. Teachers use strategies such as TAPPLE, Engagement Norms and effective feedback to check for understanding, increase participation and ensure students are actively engaged in learning. 

We follow whole-school scope and sequence documents for literacy, including structured approaches to phonics, spelling, reading comprehension, fluency, vocabulary and writing. Programs and practices such as Heggerty, Let’s Decode, Spelling Mastery, Talk for Writing, and paired fluency. Cracking the Code is being used in kindergarten to specifically target Phonological Awareness using hands-on materials, and MiniLit and MacqLit support our teaching and intervention approach. 

Student progress is regularly monitored through classroom assessment and whole-school data sources, including DIBELS, LeST, PAT, NAPLAN and school-based assessments.

This data is used to identify student needs, provide targeted support and inform teaching. 

Our goal is to ensure all students develop the literacy skills they need to access the curriculum, communicate effectively, participate confidently in learning and experience success at school and beyond.