In the first years of school, children learn through interactions with others, experimentation, scaffolding, explicit teaching, practice and play in the classroom and beyond. Your child's teacher will identify what they already know and can do, and will extend their knowledge and skills through new and challenging situations.
An important aim of the Prep year is to build on your child's previous experiences with new and different learning opportunities at school. Teachers help students to connect their home language with spoken and written English used in the classroom and other environments.
The development of students' literacy and numeracy skills is a very important component of the Australian Curriculum from Prep to Year 2. This is because literacy and numeracy are the foundations for further learning. Student's literacy skills are mostly built in English and their numeracy skills in mathematics, but both are reinforced and strengthened through all their learning.
In English, students listen, read, view, speak and write in a broad range of activities. They are explicitly taught strategies for beginning reading, writing and spelling. They learn how to speak and write in different situations and read a range of texts for different purposes.
In mathematics, students develop a sense of number, order, sequence, pattern and position using their environment. They are introduced to mathematical symbols and language so that they can investigate and solve simple problems, explain their ideas, pose questions and analyse and make sense of information.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress please contact your child's teacher.
During Years 3–10 young people begin to investigate the world beyond home and school and are required to become more independent learners.
Literacy and numeracy are again prioritised across these years of schooling. The Australian Curriculum continues to build the essential knowledge and skills in literacy in Years 3–6, with students consolidating 'learning to read and write' through English. Students also increasingly use their literacy skills for 'reading and writing to learn' in other learning areas.
The development of specific mathematical skills and knowledge are similarly progressed across the curriculum. Students use these skills in learning across the curriculum to both enrich the study of other learning areas and contribute to the development of broader and deeper numeracy skills.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress please contact your child's teacher.
Literacy and numeracy resources and activities
There are a number of resources available and activities that you can do each day to assist your child with literacy and numeracy. Below you will find some useful fact sheets and activity sheets.
Prep to Year 2