The state government has announced a new program that will be delivered as part of mandatory phonics education across Victoria.
Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners, focussing on the relationship between spoken sounds of a language and the written language.
Education Minister Ben Carroll visited Templestowe Heights Primary School on Friday, October 18 to launch Phonics Plus – a program which provides schools with a comprehensive approach to teaching reading, incorporating the evidence-based systematic synthetic phonics approach.
“National and international evidence makes it clear that a systematic synthetic phonics approach is the most effective method teachers can use to help young primary school students develop essential early reading skills,” Mr Carroll said.
The Phonics Plus resources include a detailed program that explains how students first learn simple sound-letter relationships before moving on to more complex letter combinations for reading and spelling.
Teachers will be able to access a comprehensive set of Phonics Plus lesson plans that include 25 minutes of daily and explicit phonics.
The first group of the lesson plans were released on the day of the program’s announcement, with further lesson plans available for Prep teachers later this term and for Grades 1 and 2 in the first half of 2025.
These new classroom resources aim to play a role in reducing teacher workload as well as supporting the delivery of high-quality teaching in all schools.
