Kaiapoi North School follows an evidence-based approach to teaching literacy. We aim to enable students to be able to read for meaning and enjoyment and to be able to communicate ideas through speaking and writing.

We are a flagship school for Structured Literacy and The Writing Revolution. Over the last few years, we have had hundreds of teachers visit our school to observe our literacy practice. We have also had Minister Jan Tinetti and officials from the Ministry of Education visit KNS to learn about Structure Literacy.

The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy

The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.

This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The Science of Reading has culminated in the evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties.

Structured Literacy

In 2019 Kaiapoi North adopted the Structured Literacy approach to teaching reading and spelling. This was a huge shift in our teaching that required teachers to rethink what we had been doing and to build a far more in-depth knowledge of the alphabetic principle and how to explicitly teach it to our students. The diagram below shows the elements that are part of a Structured Literacy approach and how knowledge/skills are taught.

Over the last four years, we have had eight staff trained in Multi-Sensory Structured Literacy, and we are now an accredited school. MSL and Structured Literacy are based on the same principles of instruction required for effective reading instruction.

Explicit teaching of spelling happens throughout Kaiapoi North School. This includes the alphabetic code (sounds that letters or groups of letters make) that happens in the junior years, right through to looking at prefixes, suffixes and root words in the senior school.

Acknowledgements to deb (Dyslexia Evidence Based) and The Reading League

deb - website

The Reading League - website

THE WRITING REVOLUTION

Kaiapoi North School also has an explicit approach to teaching writing. This starts orally with our New Entrants learning about what makes a complete sentence. Once students have enough of an understanding of the alphabetic code to spell basic words, they will start writing their sentences. Like our reading and spelling instruction, this starts with the most simple skills (what makes a complete sentence) and works through to more complex skills (multi-paragraph pieces of writing). Using this approach also benefits reading comprehension as writing about what you read, supports the understanding of what is being read.

Kaiapoi North has hosted many teachers over the last few years to learn about our approach to teaching reading, spelling and writing. We usually run one open day a term for other educators to visit and see both Structured Literacy and The Writing Revolution in action.

If you are interested in visiting please contact the school office. office@kaiapoinorth.school.nz