LITERACY
Welcome back to everyone in the Mooroolbark College community. It has been a minute!
As many of you may have been aware over the last few newsletters of 2022, we were looking at starting this year with some big and exciting changes and this has certainly been the case. What we can guarantee in the land of literacy at MC is more competitions, a lot more writing opportunities and an impressively elevated award system (stickers and all!). How… you may ask? Read ahead and brace yourselves ?
Ready to Learn 2023
The Year 7s were in education and social networking overload in the first couple of days of their secondary school careers as part of the ‘Ready to Learn’ sessions. We had the opportunity to give them the first look at our new literacy models at MC and had a chance to learn from the ever entertaining and experienced children’s author George Ivanoff. George shared his wisdom on beginning a story, creating uniqueness in writing and being bold with ideas and character creation during the drafting process.
QuickStart (formerly QuickSmart)
Our commitment to offering more support for our learners in years 7 and 8 continues via the QuickStart program. We have been on the front foot with learning about our new students and have used contemporary data to shortlist our candidates for 2023.
For those unfamiliar, QuickStart offers literacy support to students in sharp and meaningful sessions throughout the week outside of the classroom. Students in the program will work with our QuickStart support three times a week for approx. 30 mins each session.
Parents of students who have been shortlisted and recommended for the program will be contacted in the coming weeks to inform of the opportunities moving forward.
Literacy LORE Program
The Literacy LORE Program aims to help Mooroolbark students cultivate a ‘Love of Reading’ and ‘Evolve’ their writing and communication literacy skills in preparation for secondary school.
We believe that reading is linked with the ability to write well, and the Literacy LORE program grants an abundance of opportunities for students to put this belief to the test. It will also help students develop literacy skills in real-life situations that require problem-solving techniques and tools to ‘function’ in the world they live in. Media Literacy, Computer Literacy, Civic Literacy, Health Literacy, Emotional Literacy, Legal Literacy, Scientific Literacy, Financial Literacy will all be navigated.
When these skills are mastered, students have what is known as functional literacy.
Additionally, the program is connected to the idea of ‘Lore’. This is a word that describes stories, knowledge, history, or traditions that have been passed on throughout time about a group or people, subject, or a thing.
We also are excited to announce our partnership with StepsWeb which will feature heavily in Literacy LORE. The online adaptive literacy suite provides every student a personalised gamified experience with spelling, punctuation, grammar rules and many more.
Literacy Shield
It is with delight that we announce the launch of the inaugural ‘Literacy Shield’ in 2023. Adding to the bevy of wonderful house system awards will be the much-needed acknowledgement of those who thrive in the literacy space. This could mean participation or success in competitions, literacy related CATs or SACs from every KLA or external events that showcase and elevate the profile of literacy in the school. There will be literacy champions for each house at each year level and an overall house that wins the coveted shield. We are very excited and below are some of the new clubs or events to get involved in! Exciting times ahead.
Tyrone Ingham
LEARNING SPECIALIST LITERACY