Ensuring all children develop a love of English, as well as critical literacy skills and understandings, is the core work of our school. 

Over the past three years, staff have been building our knowledge of current educational research around the 'Science of Reading' and incorporating these practices into our pedagogy, planning and instructional practices in a systematic and sustainable manner. 

PLD is an Australian, evidence-based approach to Structured Synthetic Phonics, which is derived from the disciplines of speech pathology, occupational therapy and education. All staff in the school have received training in this approach which is implemented from K-Year 6. 

Teachers provide daily opportunities for students to write, and use strategies and approaches from PLD in the early years and Seven Steps to Writing Success to explicitly teach the elements and complexities of writing across the school.

Reading is taught through the use of decodables in the early years, followed by explicit instruction using topic based excerpts and whole texts at a whole-class, small-group and individual level as students progress through primary school. Reading fluency is modelled and practiced daily through paired, timed fluency reading, and this is monitored by teacher observation, assessment using DIBELs, and using Teams in the middle and upper years. The connection between writing and reading is made clear to students and the teaching of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, syntax, morphology, text-structures and comprehension is taught in an integrated manner. In 2024, we are working with the West Coast Language Development Centre to continue to upskill in the area of reading instruction. 

Students read for enjoyment with weekly visits to the library. At Woodvale, we encourage a love of reading with Book Week being an annual celebration of literature.

Oral language (speaking and listening) instruction begins in Kindergarten and is a key element of PLD. Students are provided with opportunities to speak in informal and formal situations throughout their schooling. The Soap Box Competition is a key component of our oral language program, and a highlight of the school calendar.