Why choose Cobram Anglican Grammar School when selecting your child’s primary school?
- Because we make your child feel welcome and safe at a time of great change in their life;
- Because we are an inclusive community that strives for excellence in all departments;
- Because our aim is to not only provide children with an outstanding education, but to also help each student grow personally thanks in part to the values that underpin everything we do: integrity, endeavour and community.
In Foundation grades at CAGS, we are committed to providing an evidence-based best practice approach to teaching foundational literacy skills, called structured literacy.
To help achieve this, we are integrating the science of reading. This is a new focus for our curriculum which specifically incorporates the five major elements of literacy: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
Head of Junior School Fiona Clark expands on the science of reading below:
“We have implemented the science of reading specifically in Foundation and Year 1 because we were finding too many students in the middle and higher primary year levels were needing intervention for decoding and other basic literacy skills,” Mrs Clark said.
While there can naturally be much apprehension for children in the lead-up to starting school, we aim to minimise this by ensuring a smooth transition period the year before.
Our orientation program begins with kindergarten visits in Term 2 and in Term 3.
In Term 4, prospective students get to take part in our 15-hour transition program, which further provides students with the opportunity to experience school life by participating in fun and engaging ‘specialist’ sessions such as music, physical education and Chinese.
In addition to the transition and orientation programs, CAGS also ensures Foundation students are cared for, nurtured and safe at all times with the assistance of a full-time education support person in the classroom to assist the classroom teacher.
“Having education support staff in classrooms can have a significant impact on the achievement, engagement and wellbeing outcomes for our students, including those with disability and additional needs,” Mrs Clark said.
“Our ESOs play a critical role in strengthening an inclusive school culture and they help foster a positive climate for learning and personal growth for all our students who require an extra helping hand,” Mrs Clark said.
Our small Foundation class sizes also ensure each student gets the required one-to-one learning time they require. .