Reading has always been the key to one’s education. Starting with a strong foundation in phonics and moving through an intensive reading program, the student is introduced in a personal way to history, science and geography. This results in a student who reads well, reads a wide variety of books and literature, and through this enjoys reading also.
Our school is licensed to use the Heron Basics Curriculum™ a rich, diverse, individualized and practical program which focuses on real-world application and responsibility of the individual. The children are taught very effective learning techniques utilizing the educational philosophy of L. Ron Hubbard, an American humanitarian and educator.
The Heron Basics™ Beginner Reading Program, which is delivered to four- to six-year-olds, smoothly brings first-time readers up to a strong reading competence at the mid-first-grade reading level. Students get a very solid grounding in phonics and at the same time do a large volume of reading. The child learns how to decode or sound out unfamiliar words, giving him a foundation for independent reading. Parallel to this, the program takes the child through an abundance of small beginning books, simple pre-primers, and he is instructed closely in word recognition and understanding, as well as reading and comprehending text. The phonics and reading instruction are coupled with a growing amount of independent reading. All this provides a rounded approach that feeds a child’s natural impulse to learn to read, builds his reading vocabulary and provides him with the tools he needs to read well independently. The enjoyment and pleasure he derives from reading which is considered crucial to his progress, are carefully sustained.
The Heron Basics Reading Program for Forms 1 and 2 (roughly six- to nine-year-olds) develops a child’s interest and ability to read. A child continues his grounding in phonics and acquires, at the same time, a more extensive reading vocabulary as he progresses up through six different reading levels covering the second half of first-grade, then second and third grade reading.
Each student is instructed individually, and his progress is carefully monitored to ensure he can read easily on each level before going on to the next. Independent reading is encouraged, and an abundance of books and time are made available. Because of the strong foundation, students will read remarkably large quantities – in addition to twelve instructional readers that are closely monitored, each child reads on the average about six hundred books on his own as he progresses from mid first-grade through to the end of third-grade reading! Many children, with gusto, read more.
