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English

English

English is central to the learning and development of all students at Piara Waters Primary School.

The study of English helps our students to develop confidence in communicating, allows them to be critical and imaginative thinkers, and provides them with the skills needed for life.

The teaching of English is consistent with the Western Australian English Curriculum which is divided into three content strands;  

  • Reading and Viewing
  • Writing
  • Speaking and Listening

 READING AND VIEWING

Reading is a fundamental skill. Reading high-quality literature allows students to learn about the world around them and expand their experiences. Since 2022, we have been updating our school resources to provide students with a wider range of reading material that supports students at all levels to progress within this learning area.

In our classrooms, reading instruction has a focus on teaching instructional reading and comprehension strategies. Students are exposed to modelled, shared and guided reading within the classroom.

In all Kindergarten to Year 2 classrooms, students participate in a daily phonemic awareness session using the Heggerty program. 

Young children whose parents read them five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than children who have never been read to. 

Children who are read one book a day will hear about 290,000 more words by age 5 than those who don't regularly read books with a parent or caregiver.

Developing a rich vocabulary is critical for success in school and life. 

Every student from Kindergarten to Year 6 is provided with a Reading Log.  Students must read four times a week, and return their log to school every Monday. 

Students also visit the library each week and are encouraged to borrow books.

The State Library of Western Australias’ Better Beginnings site has information and resources to start your child’s reading journey, from birth. 

Pre-Primary Reading support

Students should finish pre-primary being able to;

  • identify the beginning, middle and ending sound in three sound words
  • orally blend three sounds together to form a word
  • break apart a three sound word
  • say and spell the 26 basic alphabet sounds and some diagraphs.  Recognise the letter names and sounds (identify both upper and lower case letters).
  • sound out and spell three sound words, following a CVC pattern
  • read and spell some high frequency words that can be tricky to sound out (see list in back of Reading Log)
  • read and write 5-7 word sentences with simple CVC words
  • track with their finger whilst reading

If students do not know these things by the end of pre-primary, they will be behind in their reading development and find it difficult to remain on track with their learning in year one.

Pre-primary students have been provided with take-home resources to support the development of these concepts at home.  You can also download these here;

KINDERGARTEN EARLY READING AND MATHS SUPPORT

Kindergarten students have been provided with take-home resources to support the development of these concepts at home.  You can also download these here;    

WRITING

At Piara Waters Primary School, students are taught to write a variety of text types including imaginative, informative and persuasive. Teachers delve deep into these text types to examine the structure, language features and grammar concepts.

Editing

A current school focus is developing our students’ editing skills and processes.  Starting in Pre-Primary, the Western Australian Curriculum states that students will be able to reread and edit their writing to improve punctuation, spelling, text structure, grammar and meaning by the time they reach Year 6.

Our new approach to editing at Piara Waters Primary School is focused on ensuring consistency across our school in the use of symbols and processes of editing. These symbols are used by teachers and students to edit and improve writing. This consistency across our school will support students to continue developing a strong understanding of editing and ultimately improve their writing.

To improve students’ editing process, they are being introduced to ARMS and CUPS which are our tools to revise and edit writing. The use of ARMS and CUPS will support students to edit with the goal of improving not just punctuation and spelling, but also meaning and detail. These elements are explicitly taught within our classrooms.

Handwriting

At Piara Waters Primary School we teach students the NSW Foundation Style Font. You can find out more about our Handwriting font and expectations here.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

In Kindergarten to year 1 classrooms, Oral language skills are explicitly taught by teachers and supported by using the Language Express toolkit.  This is an evidence-based resource, developed by literacy experts and speech pathologists. 

As students progress through their primary schooling, they are taught to use a variety of strategies to engage in group and class discussions and make presentations. We work to develop effective listeners and students who contribute actively, ask questions, and communicate successfully.

What will my child learn?

Parents can view the syllabuses for Pre-Primary to Year 6 on the SCSA website.