English

English Curriculum

The West Australian Curriculum: English Foundation to Year 10 is organised into three interrelated strands that support students' growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English (English). Together the three strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing. The three strands are:

Language: knowing about the English language

Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to, analysing and creating literature

Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage.

The West Australian Curriculum, English aims to ensure that students:
• Learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.

• Appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue.

• Understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning.

• Develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.

At South Thornlie Primary School teachers design learning experiences to support students in developing functional and critical literacy skills. Teachers are supported in working to meet the literacy needs of all the students in their care. A stimulating print rich environment is provided by all teachers to further support students’ literacy development. The children are encouraged to read, write and speak from Kindergarten. High expectations and structured learning and teaching programs ensure success in this priority learning area.

English TAP

At South Thornlie Primary School we have developed an English Targeted Achievement Program to support students to achieve a specific target in English. The program commenced in Term 3 and is coordinated through Admin and implemented by Education Assistants.
Sessions are run several times a week for 30 minutes usually anywhere between 5-10 consecutive weeks, depending on the need. The selected students will complete 1-4 set targets over the course of the program.
We currently have 29 students in the program and have already assisted 24 students with achieving their targets this year.

Wendy Fisher
English TAP Program