Early Childhood Vision Statement
At Cocos Islands District High School, we offer a place of belonging for each child. We foster the development of the whole child through a blend of explicit, authentic, relevant and meaningful learning experiences where individual needs, interests, culture and language are valued.
Kindy
Involves explicit instruction, teacher-guided and student led play. Students are engaged in play-based learning for the majority of the day, with learning centres set up with purposeful, intentional activities.
Pre-Primary
Involves a unique blend of explicit teaching and play-based learning. Investigation Time occurs four times a week for 40 minutes a day with learning centres set up with purposeful, intentional activities. After this session, there is a constant blend of explicit teaching and play-based learning with both teacher-led and guided play for the reminder of the day. Students engage in a literacy block and the curriculum is delivered through programs and resources consisting of Sounds Write, Talk for Writing, Peggy Lego, and Decodable Readers. This is followed by daily Numeracy Blocks utilising strategies and resources from Dr Paul Swan and Top Ten Mathematics.
Year 1 and 2
Involves an increase in teacher directed games to consolidate curriculum concepts taught. Learning centres are set up with purposeful, intentional activities that children engage with to apply, consolidate and extend their learning. Hands on materials and games are used as a form of play. Students engage in a literacy block and the curriculum is delivered through programs and resources consisting of Sounds Write, Talk for Writing and Decodable Readers with students moving onto more complex texts by the end of Year 2. Numeracy Blocks are delivered daily utilising strategies and resources from Dr Paul Swan and Top Ten Mathematics.
Whole School Approaches
Walker Learning
Cocos Islands District High School is a Walker Learning inspired school. Walker Learning is an evidenced based holistic pedagogical approach to teaching and learning that provides a unique balance between the children being active participants in their learning and explicit instruction. Walker Learning utilises play based learning areas that are set up by the teacher with clear links to curriculum content in an engaging and purposeful way. It helps to develop students’ skills for life, social skills, problem solving skills as well as consolidating and applying learning in a variety of contexts.
Sounds Write
Sounds Write is an explicit, structured, systematic, synthetic phonics approach to teaching spelling and reading. Lessons are targeted to student needs to promote continual growth and constant revision with opportunities to apply their knowledge while reading and writing.
Talk for Writing
Talk for Writing is an engaging framework for teaching writing moving from oral language to written texts. Students retell familiar texts, using visual story maps and gestures. The program promotes writing by providing a strong structure where students are supported with the skills to innovate and independently create texts. Grammar and vocabulary are taught explicitly alongside to build the knowledge to be an independent and creative writer.
Peggy Lego
The Peggy Lego program is a systematic way to teaching prewriting patterns, which form the basis of all letters of the alphabet. Peggy Lego breaks down letters into seven pencil movements and then supports students to learn correct letter formation with these patterns (Lil Peeps OT, 2019). Cocos Islands District High School uses the consistent language of Peggy Lego formations in Kindy to support correct letter formation in Pre-Primary.
Phonological Awareness
Letters and Sounds Phase 1 is used to support the teaching of phonological awareness in Kindy. David Kilpatrick Equipped for Reading Success is used in Pre-Primary to Year 2 to teach phonological awareness and oral phoneme manipulation.
Numeracy
In Early Childhood numeracy is taught through explicit instruction utilising concrete materials. Students’ progress from using hands on resources to representing problems with pictures before moving to mathematical equations. Numeracy teaching is supported through the use of strategies from Dr Paul Swan and Top Ten Mathematics. Literacy is integrated into Numeracy lessons through the use of mathematical picture books which help to develop student’s mathematical vocabulary.
Abecedarian
At Cocos Islands District High School, we support the community to enhance the early development of children by working alongside families in the years before they begin school. The program focuses on enriched caregiving and language development through learning games and conversational reading skills.
