At Black Hill we foster a love of literature and pride ourselves on an English Program which supports students to achieve personal success in their learning across Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Word Study.

Students are supported to learn from mentor texts so that they can see English at its best and use these techniques in their own reading, writing and oral language. Teachers scaffold students with explicit teaching and a wide range of opportunities to practice their skill development in whole class, small group, and independent learning. Students discuss their learning and set goals with their teachers and are able to articulate what they are learning and how they know they are successful.

Families are involved with their child's English journey with take home reading and Word Study practice, a school library borrowing system, and regular opportunities for students to share their learning in person and via online platforms. When Reading, students learn strategies to become competent decoders of text, explore new vocabulary, monitor their understanding and read with fluency and expression.

They are supported to understand what happens in the text and why, as well as analysing what is written, critiquing the choices the author and illustrator make. During Writing, students engage in developing pieces with purpose and audience in mind. They explore a range of genres and how to best put their ideas to writing in the most effective way.

Students develop their own ideas for writing in their Writer’s Notebooks, giving individual students choice. They work through the writing process, developing ideas, drafting, revising and editing, before publishing and celebrating their success as young writers. In Word Study, students in the early years are taught letters and sounds through explicit spelling strategies as well as learning sentence building, parts of speech, and handwriting.

Students continue their study of grammar and spelling strategies across their schooling years. Throughout the middle and later years, students develop an awareness of the meaning of words by exploring vocabulary, prefixes and suffixes and word origins.