Literacy education
Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (10:42): There is so much happening in education in my community of Albert Park, and one of those things is phonics. Evidence has shown us that systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective method to teach children to read. Going forward, schools will be supported to make this transition and will include a minimum of 25 minutes a day explicit teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness from prep to grade 2. South Melbourne Primary is one of the schools that already include systematic synthetic phonics in their teaching, and I got to visit it last week. I had the opportunity to present the students of this school with an assortment of books from the Mary Martin Bookshop in Port Melbourne as part of the school’s commitment to reading, because reading is what? Fundamental.