Elena,
Welcome to the Discussion Board!! We do have other teachers from Australia who have posted on the Discussion Board that I hope you can connect with for sharing ideas. I also want to tell you about another place I ran across by accident that may be really helpful to you.
On Facebook, there is a group called Daily 5 (SA). I found out it is teachers from Southern Australia. I followed for some time, although I haven’t visited it much lately. (I’m from San Antonio Texas in the USA, so I originally though that’s what the SA stood for!!)
It seemed to be a pretty active group, so that may be another place to discover.
But I do hope you’ll also find some friends on here, too. If there are any general or specific ways we can assist you, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Suzanne

Hi, I have been teaching kindergarten / year 1 with Daily 5 for about 8-9 years - with a great deal of success. Last year I took a break and was doing learning support. I am back on class this year with Year 1. Unfortunately, the new executives have decided to implement a scripted literacy program using decodable texts . The program (InitialLit) will be taught across  K-2. It is very scripted with a heavy focus on teaching phonics. There appears to be a lot of worksheets -and very teaching directed. I am trying to work out a way where I can also incorporate elements of Daily 5 into the literacy so that the students can have some choice and independence. Any suggestions would be helpful.