Kindergarten students at Oatley Public School in southern Sydney are developing foundational writing skills through a structured approach that breaks down sentence construction into manageable components. The school’s assistant principal, Lauren Edwards, explained that the method focuses on teaching one element of writing each day to prevent children from becoming overwhelmed.

Since 2023, Oatley Public has been piloting an explicit writing instruction program that guides students from understanding the composition of spoken sentences to writing short stories. The program begins with oral sentence structuring, where children identify key parts such as the subject, verb, and object, before moving on to written sentence construction and eventually more complex texts. By year two, students are capable of forming compound sentences, organizing paragraphs, and planning extended writing.

This instructional method aligns with the school’s earlier adoption of systematic phonics for reading, which has been taught since 2016—five years before such an approach became mandatory in all New South Wales public schools. Edwards noted that extending explicit teaching methods from reading to writing was a natural progression.

Oatley’s results on the 2026 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) reflect the success of these efforts. This year, 96.5 percent of the school’s year three students ranked in the "strong" or "exceeding" bands for writing, with none falling into the "needs additional support" category. This compares with a national average of approximately 74 percent achieving similarly high proficiency.

These achievements come amid concerns about declining writing standards across Australian schools. Critics attribute this trend to longstanding policy failures and a lack of consistent, explicit instruction of the English language’s structure. A 2018 study by the Centre for Independent Studies cited the use of multiple, inconsistent teaching methodologies as contributing to a “near abandonment” of clear guidance on language rules.

In response, New South Wales public school teachers will undergo mandatory training in explicit, evidence-based writing instruction beginning in term 1, 2027. The training emphasizes enhancing teacher expertise in areas such as grammar, sentence construction, and spelling.

Jenny Donovan, chief executive of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), highlighted the importance of explicit teaching, stating that writing rules are not innate and must be taught in manageable components to accommodate working memory limitations. The MultiLit writing program trialed at Oatley, developed in partnership with AERO, reflects this philosophy and addresses concerns about teacher preparedness and confidence in delivering effective writing instruction.

By focusing on oral sentence development initially, then gradually moving to written composition, Oatley Public School aims to build a strong foundation that enables students to progress without cognitive overload. Edwards described practical classroom techniques such as breaking down sentences—asking students, for example, “Who was in my sentence? The cat”—to reinforce understanding before advancing to more complex writing tasks.