Whitlam Institute launches literacy project in Western Sydney

Sun-Herald editor Philip McLean, Gough Whitlam and UWS student teacher Veronica Fay with students

Gough Whitlam was at Cabramatta West Public School on December 21, 2003 to launch a partnership between the Sun-Herald newspaper, the NSW Department of Education and the University of Western Sydney's Whitlam Institute to help boost literacy in primary classrooms.

Central to the Priority Schools Literacy Project is the Sun-Herald Class Scoop program - an internet site which carries educational resources based on the reading and comprehension of each week's newspaper.

More than 540 schools in NSW in economically challenged areas will be part of the project. All primary schools in the project will use Class Scoop.

In the 2004 school year, UWS student teachers from the UWS School of Education and Early Childhood Studies will go into selected schools in Western Sydney to develop the project in partnership with classroom teachers.

UWS teacher education students will be on a mission to make literacy lessons for Primary School children as much fun as reading the Sunday newspaper.

Before children get to High School they need to understand how our language works and how and why people communicate with each other in so many different ways.

UWS Literacy Program co-ordinator, Katina Zammit says the challenge for all teachers is to make literacy relevant and authentic for young readers - and newspapers are a great place to start.

'On the surface our students will be in classrooms talking about Rugby League, movies, excitement on share markets, or how elections work. But this project aims to use everyday reading experiences to teach the basics of critical literacy skills - from understanding how sentences are put together to how all sorts of media texts work to talk about what happens in our society,' Katina Zammit says.

UWS students will investigate the impact of Sun-Herald scoop in the classroom and contribute new materials for the website based on their findings.

Speaking at the launch UWS student teacher, Veronica Fay, 22 says newspapers are great for teaching.

'The direction has changed since I was at school and children today are very interested in real issues and current events,' Veronica says.

Ray Gilles, the NSW Department of Education's equity co-ordination unit manager, says such programs were aimed at creating a level playing field, no matter what differences were in a student's background.

Fairfax Marketing Services manager, Rosemary Woods, says the Sun-Herald was proud to be involved in the initiative.

'It is one of our objectives to assist teachers in improving students' literacy an numeracy through projects like this one and the Premier's Reading Challenge,' she says.

Photograph shows Cabramatta West Public School students, Jelena Kalanj and Peter Mai, at work in the school library on the day of the Literacy project launch. They are with UWS student teacher Veronica Fay, Sun-Herald editor Philip McLean and Gough Whitlam.

Thanks to Sean Berry, reporter Sun-Herald Newspaper and Sun-Herald Photographer Anthony Jonhnson.