St Pius X Primary School

Learning & Teaching

At St Pius X we place a strong emphasis on building excellent foundations for learning, particularly in the early years of schooling. Our program focuses on developing strong literacy and numeracy skills while nurturing curiosity, confidence and a love of learning.

A key part of our literacy approach is Sounds-Write, a structured, evidence informed phonics program that helps children understand how written English works while developing the skills to read, write and spell with confidence. Through daily lessons, students develop the skills to read and spell with accuracy and confidence. This explicit and systematic approach ensures children build strong foundations that support their learning across all areas of the curriculum.

Alongside literacy and numeracy, our classrooms provide rich learning experiences that encourage students to explore, question and collaborate. Our teachers create engaging and supportive learning environments where every child is known, challenged and supported to achieve their personal best.

Structured Literacy

A structured literacy approach provides: explicit, systematic, and sequential teaching of literacy at multiple levels – phonemes, letter–sound relationships, syllable patterns, morphemes, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structure.

Watch the video to find our more.

In June 2024, Education Minister and Deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, announced that all Victorian government schools will be required to implement evidence-based Literacy teaching, including the use of a systematic phonics program from F-2 and a teaching method called 'explicit instruction'.

At St Pius X, we have been meeting this requirement, and other recommendations of the Grattan Report 'The Reading Guarantee' since 2024. In line with the best-available evidence about how children learn to read and with the support of Catholic Education Ballarat, we are in the process of updating our approach to Literacy instruction. We are aiming to embed an effective and consistent Structured Literacy methodology from Foundation to Year Six.

This means that we teach all the elements of literacy, including phonics, in a systematic and explicit way, ensuring that all our students have the foundational knowledge and understandings they need to become successful readers and writers. The phonics program we have implemented F-6 is Sounds Write which is recognised by the Dyslexia -SPELD Foundation as a an effective approach to improve reading and writing outcomes for all students.

You may notice some changes in the language we use to communicate student progress and you may notice some changes in practice. For example, our early readers will no longer bring home 'levelled readers', but will instead bring home 'decodable books', that have been chosen specifically to align with our teaching sequence. If you have any questions or concerns about these (or any other) changes, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Please be assured that these changes have been made after much careful consideration, consultation with world-leading experts and - of course - in the best interests of our children.

A ‘structured literacy’ approach to teaching reading is best. It draws on decades of research evidence, including cognitive science, by explicitly and systematically teaching students the key sub-skills needed for reading and writing. (Grattan Report, February 2024)

Specialist Programs.

Learn more about our specialist learning subjects. The Arts, Digital Technology, Japanese and Physical Education.

Hands on Learning.

Hands on Learning is a practical in-school program that builds engagement, wellbeing, and attendance by creating opportunities for students to discover their talents and experience success through significant and authentic hands-on projects. We provide training and support for partner schools who become members of regional networks sharing ideas and inspiration.

Parent School Partnership

Learning at school is just one aspect of a child's education. Parents play a key role in educating their children; the school supports this role. A child's success at school is greatly influenced by the collaboration between parents and teachers. It is also influenced by parental attitudes and expectations. Therefore, the interests of the child are served best when there is collaboration, cooperation, understanding, and mutual respect between the school and home.

We encourage all parents to become fully involved within the School. We invite you to offer your assistance in any way possible, e.g. reading, canteen assistant, School Advisory Council, Parents and Friends, sporting events and library support.

At St. Pius X, we teach your child to make our world a better place.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

Curriculum Areas

Literacy

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Numeracy

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Specialist Subjects

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Religious Education

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