Literacy and Numeracy

Literacy and Numeracy

At Kelmscott Primary School, we recognise that strong literacy and numeracy skills are fundamental to every child's success at school and beyond. Our approach is explicit, evidence-informed and consistent across the school, ensuring students develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to become successful learners.

Literacy and numeracy are taught explicitly every day, with teaching targeted to students' learning needs and designed to provide both support and extension.

Daily Warm-Ups

Every literacy and numeracy block begins with a structured Daily Warm-Up. These fast-paced, highly engaging sessions provide students with regular opportunities to recite, recall and apply previously taught knowledge and skills.

Warm-ups are an important part of our approach to learning. Through deliberate retrieval and repeated practice, students strengthen their recall of essential knowledge and build connections between new and prior learning, supporting the transfer of learning from short-term to long-term memory.

Literacy

Our Literacy Block provides systematic and explicit instruction across the essential components of reading, spelling and writing.

In the early years, students develop strong foundations in phonemic awareness and phonics through Heggerty and UFLI Foundations. Students are explicitly taught to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken language, connect sounds with letters and use this knowledge to decode words when reading and encode words when spelling.

As students progress through the school, Spelling Mastery provides systematic instruction in spelling using phonemic, morphemic and whole-word strategies.

Writing is guided by the KPS Writing Scope and Sequence, developed by our staff to provide a clear and consistent progression of knowledge and skills across year levels. Students are explicitly taught the vocabulary, sentence structures, language features and organisational skills required to become increasingly confident and capable writers.

Across literacy, teachers use explicit instruction, modelling, guided practice, regular checks for understanding and purposeful independent practice to ensure students know what they are learning and can successfully apply it.

Numeracy

Students from Pre-primary to Year 6 participate in PRIME Mathematics, which provides a structured and sequential approach to developing mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills.

Our numeracy teaching combines explicit instruction with modelling, guided practice, purposeful questioning and opportunities for students to apply their learning independently.

Each Numeracy Block begins with a Daily Warm-Up, where students revisit essential number facts, mathematical concepts and previously taught skills. Through regular retrieval and application, students build fluency, strengthen their mathematical knowledge and develop the confidence to tackle increasingly complex concepts.

At KPS, we believe every student can make progress. We use assessment, classroom evidence and student achievement data to identify what students know, determine what they need to learn next and provide targeted support or extension.

Our goal is simple: strong foundations, explicit teaching and high expectations for every student, every day.