Growing Confidence Through Reading Connections

Since Term 2, our Reading Buddies program has been helping students build confidence, connection and a love of reading. Each week, older students are paired with younger learners to share stories, practise reading aloud, and talk about what they’ve read.

Reading Buddies gives every student the chance to be both a learner and a leader. Younger readers benefit from extra practice and encouragement in a relaxed, supportive environment, while older students strengthen their fluency, comprehension and communication skills by modelling what good reading looks and sounds like.

Teachers have noticed students eagerly looking forward to their Reading Buddy sessions. The program has built positive relationships across our school and encouraged genuine excitement about books.

It’s been wonderful to see our Port Dalrymple students taking pride in their reading progress, supporting one another, and showing that at our school, everyone is a reader.

UFLI: Building the Foundations for Reading Success

In our Prep to Year 4 classes, students have been learning to read with UFLI Foundations. UFLI (pronounced you-fly) Foundations is a phonics program that helps students build strong reading skills. UFLI Foundations is a program that builds the early skills needed to become a confident reader through short daily lessons focusing on the sounds and letters needed to spell, say, recognise and read words.

We are using the UFLI Foundations program because it is based on research about how children learn to read. It is an interactive way to learn reading skills that allows our students to practise, revise and build on their skills each week.

Our students are loving their UFLI lessons. They are focused and engaged in the activities, and we can see their confidence as readers already growing.

Word Origins: Discovering the Meaning Behind Words

In our Year 5–8 classes, students are learning to unlock the meaning of words through our Word Origins program. Word Origins helps students become stronger readers, writers and spellers by exploring where words come from and how they are built.

The program teaches students to look closely at the morphemes (prefixes, bases and suffixes) that make up words, building their vocabulary and understanding of how English works. This knowledge helps them read unfamiliar words, spell with greater accuracy and connect meaning across subjects.

We use the Word Origins program because it is based on research into how the English language has developed and how students learn best through structured, explicit teaching. Lessons are practical and engaging, giving students opportunities to analyse, discuss and apply their learning in meaningful ways.

Our students are really enjoying discovering the stories behind words and seeing how these patterns help them become confident, capable readers and writers.

Fluency: Bringing Reading to Life

In our Year Prep–10 classes, students are developing their reading fluency, the ability to read smoothly, accurately and with expression. Fluency bridges the gap between recognising words and truly understanding what is being read.

Our fluency lessons include short, daily practice sessions where students reread familiar texts, echo and choral read with the teacher, or take part in partner reading. These activities help students strengthen their automatic word recognition, phrasing and confidence.

We focus on fluency because research shows that it is a key link between word recognition and comprehension. When students read fluently, their brains can focus on making meaning instead of decoding each word.

Teachers model fluent reading, provide feedback and track growth so that each student can see their improvement over time. Students enjoy the challenge of reading with expression and accuracy, and they take pride in hearing their own progress.

At Port Dalrymple School, developing fluency is another way we are supporting every learner to become a confident, capable and joyful reader.