​Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) has launched a targeted improvement program for spelling, leveraging cycles of improvement, evidence-informed resourcing and professional learning.

Part of the Foundations for Success program of work, it is already benefiting thousands of students across 52 BCE schools.

Research shows that the explicit teaching of spelling not only improves spelling, it also improves reading comprehension, writing and vocabulary – lifelong literacy skills that will help our learners reach their potential.

Director, Literacy Education Solutions and Adjunct Associate Professor Latrobe University Solar Lab, Dr Tessa Daffern, led two days of professional development supporting our teachers to learn about the explicit teaching of spelling.

“Learning to spell doesn’t necessarily happen by recognising and absorbing words and their meaning,” Dr Daffern said.

“While some students can learn to spell through exposure to print, we can speed up that learning in the presence of explicit teaching.

“Explicit teaching of spelling, however, is quite complex and it is very important for teachers to have that understanding of the linguistics of how words work, understand the unique pedagogy of teaching spelling and also how to use assessment data to inform their teaching.”

BCE Project Lead – Literacy, Lucy Walker, said the aim of the professional learning was to provide practical strategies to empower our teachers to respond directly to their learners, enhance engagement and ultimately improve student outcomes.  

“By providing our teachers and school leaders with a really targeted improvement program, and the structure of an improvement sprint, means that teachers can choose something that is new learning for them and apply this in their classrooms.”

The Foundations for Success program of work is a key part of BCE’s Education Strategy, focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy skills for our students, and empowering our teachers through evidence-informed practices for high impact pedagogical practices.

Learn more about how the program is benefiting our students in the video below.