Sway| Overview

Overview

SWAY is an oral language and early literacy program based on local Aboriginal language and stories within the early learning environment.

There are 6 Units of Learning.

Me and my body
My family, my home
My school, my community
My culture, my history
My Land, my Australia
Our journey

The content within these units has been planned within the context of the Early Years Learning Framework. SWAY engages children in developmentally appropriate play-based experiences that encourage creative thinking, problem solving, decision making and communication between teacher and child.

One of the main goals of SWAY is to build capacity of teaching staff through training and ongoing mentoring.

Speech Pathologists work together with teachers to plan and implement a range of evidence based oral language strategies in the following key learning areas:

Sounds

Listening skills
Phonological awareness.

Words

Vocabulary and concept knowledge.
Use of grammar
Sentence construction.

Yarning

Comprehension of stories.
Recounting of events
Storytelling skills.

Aboriginal Language

Words in local Aboriginal language are shared throughout the learning experiences. This creates an awareness and appreciation of the language. It encourages meaningful learning of local culture and history and works towards building students cultural identity.

Training and Support

Following initial training, professional mentoring sessions are undertaken over a specially designed virtual interface developed by National ICT Australia (NICTA).

The COVIU interface has been designed to be highly motivating, child friendly and culturally inclusive, at the same time providing state of the art audio and video, working across all platforms. It can be used for remote speech pathology intervention, staff training and ongoing mentoring.

The support to teaching staff via the interface allows culturally appropriate content to be shared. Educators are provided with opportunities to implement strategies within the classroom, to reflect and improve on their teaching practices. Teachers are provided with culturally appropriate content and resources.

Connecting to Country

Oral Language Strategies

Play Based Learning

Sharing Yarns