The Intensive comprehension (Reading) courses, Year 1 – Year 10, operate during the term and in some holiday programs. In the termly programs, reading comprehension is taught in the same course as Writing and Vocabulary. In the holiday program comprehension is usually a stand-alone course.
The SSE’s emphasis is firmly placed on the acquisition of reading and interpretation skills rather than on just practising tests. By focussing on skills, students accumulate understanding of reading concepts, which can be readily applied to new, unseen text types and questions. Comprehension means ‘understanding’. It follows, therefore, that to succeed in tests of reading comprehension, an understanding of how texts are constructed, and how language is manipulated, is fundamental to this process.
By studying the SSE’s writing programs, students who are using higher order skills in their own writing, are better able to recognise these in passages written by others i.e. the more demanding comprehension texts, such as those found in a Scholarship or Selective School Test.
The skills taught cover the whole spectrum of those required for tests such as NAPLAN, Opportunity Class, Selective School and Scholarship places to High School.
From the literal to the literary type questions, from information reports to poetry the SSE offers comprehensive skills based courses, taught by real teachers, getting real results.