The English curriculum is designed to offer children a language experience which integrates oral language, reading and writing. Through oral language children develop the ability to communicate and use language socially, develop cognitive skills, develop reading and writing skills and enrich their language experience and imaginative powers.
The approach to reading presented in the English Curriculum is based on this integrated language experience. From earliest years children in the school experience a print-rich environment in which they have ready access to books. As their reading abilities develop, children are encouraged to read for pleasure and information, taught to locate and use books for a variety of purposes, develop the higher order comprehension skills and to read for both functional and social purposes.
The children’s ability to write clearly and expressively is developed through the process of writing. Children are given opportunities to write for a variety of purposes, for different audiences and in a range of genres. Using a variety innovative teaching practices children are taught how to to self-correct their own writing, through a consistent experience of drafting, editing and redrafting. A command of the conventions of grammar, spelling and punctuation is developed using student –centred approaches, enabling children to become independent writers.