Pre-primary year SyllabusTest
- Rationale
- Aims
- Content Structure
- English across Pre-primary to Year 12
- Achievement Standards
- Student Diversity
- Ways of Teaching
- Ways of Assessing
- General capabilities
- Cross-curriculum Priorities
- Links to other learning areas
- Implications for teaching, assessment and reporting
- Glossary
- English P–10 Scope and Sequence for teaching in 2024 (PDF)
English P–10 Scope and Sequence for teaching in 2024 (DOC)- Professional learning
- Revisions to the WA curriculum English P–6 Phonics and word knowledge (DOC)
- ABLEWA English Scope and Sequence
- ABLEWA English Scope and Sequence (PDF)
- EAL/D English Pre-primary to Year 10
Pre-primary year Syllabus
Year Level Description
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the three strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will develop and strengthen these as needed.
In the Pre-primary year, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as some texts designed to inform. These include traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts and dramatic performances. They participate in shared reading, viewing and storytelling using a range of literary texts, and recognise the entertaining nature of literature.
The range of literary texts for Pre-primary to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Literary texts that support and extend Pre-primary students as beginner readers include decodable and predictable texts that range from caption books to books with one or more sentences per page. These texts involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisable, realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest; a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences; mostly familiar vocabulary, known, high-frequency words and single-syllable words that can be decoded phonically, and illustrations that strongly support the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including pictorial representations, short statements, performances, recounts and poetry.
Language
Language variation and change
Understand that English is one of many languages spoken in Australia and that different languages may be spoken by family, classmates and community (ACELA1426)
Language for interaction
Explore how language is used differently at home and school depending on the relationships between people (ACELA1428)
Understand that language can be used to explore ways of expressing needs, likes and dislikes (ACELA1429)
Text structure and organisation
Understand that texts can take many forms, can be very short (for example an exit sign) or quite long (for example an information book or a film) and that stories and informative texts have different purposes (ACELA1430)
Understand that some language in written texts is unlike everyday spoken language (ACELA1431)
Understand that punctuation is a feature of written text different from letters; recognise how capital letters are used for names, and that capital letters and full stops signal the beginning and end of sentences (ACELA1432)
Understand concepts about print and screen, including how books, film and simple digital texts work, and know some features of print, for example directionality (ACELA1433)
Expressing and developing ideas
Recognise that sentences are key units for expressing ideas (ACELA1435)
Recognise that texts are made up of words and groups of words that make meaning (ACELA1434)
Explore the different contribution of words and images to meaning in stories and informative texts (ACELA1786)
Understand the use of vocabulary in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school (ACELA1437)
Phonic and word knowledge
Recognise and generate rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (phonological awareness) (AC9EFLY09)
Segment sentences into individual words; orally blend and segment single-syllable spoken words; isolate, blend and manipulate phonemes in single-syllable words (phonological awareness) (AC9EFLY10)
Recognise and name all upper- and lower-case letters (graphs) and know the most common sound that each letter represents (AC9EFLY11)
Write consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words by representing sounds with the appropriate letters, and blend sounds associated with letters when reading CVC words (AC9EFLY12)
Use knowledge of letters and sounds to spell words (AC9EFLY13)
Read and write some high-frequency words and other familiar words (AC9EFLY14)
Understand that words are units of meaning and can be made of more than one meaningful part (AC9EFLY15)
Literature
Literature and context
Recognise that texts are created by authors who tell stories and share experiences that may be similar or different to students' own experiences (ACELT1575)
Responding to literature
Respond to texts, identifying favourite stories, authors and illustrators (ACELT1577)
Share feelings and thoughts about the events and characters in texts (ACELT1783)
Examining literature
Identify some features of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (ACELT1578)
Recognise some different types of literary texts and identify some characteristic features of literary texts, for example beginnings and endings of traditional texts and rhyme in poetry (ACELT1785)
Replicate the rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes, songs and poems from a range of cultures (ACELT1579)
Creating literature
Retell familiar literary texts through performance, use of illustrations and images (ACELT1580)
Innovate on familiar texts through play (ACELT1831)
Literacy
Texts in context
Identify some familiar texts and the contexts in which they are used (ACELY1645)
Interacting with others
Listen to and respond orally to texts and to the communication of others in informal and structured classroom situations (ACELY1646)
Use interaction skills including listening while others speak, using appropriate voice levels, articulation and body language, gestures and eye contact (ACELY1784)
Deliver short oral presentations to peers (ACELY1647)
Interpreting, analysing, evaluating
Identify some differences between imaginative and informative texts (ACELY1648)
Read decodable and authentic texts using developing phonic and word knowledge, and monitor meaning using context and emerging grammatical knowledge
Use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently (ACELY1650)
Creating texts
Create short texts to explore, record and report ideas and events using familiar words and beginning writing knowledge (ACELY1651)
Participate in shared editing of students' own texts for meaning, spelling, capital letters and full stops (ACELY1652)
Produce some lower case and upper case letters using learned letter formations (ACELY1653)
Construct texts using software including word processing programs (ACELY1654)
Pre-primary Achievement Standard
Handwriting behaviours are not described in the year level achievement standard or the writing assessment pointers. Instead, the Authority has developed the Handwriting Continuum to support Western Australian teachers in the teaching and monitoring of student handwriting for Pre-primary through to Year 10. The Handwriting Continuum can be found under the Teaching menu in the K-10 section of this website. Teachers will need to log in to the Extranet to access this resource.
Reading and Viewing
At Standard, students use predicting and questioning strategies to make meaning from texts. They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics. They understand that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics. They identify connections between texts and their personal experience. They read short, decodable and predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on their developing knowledge of concepts of print, sounds and letters, and decoding and self-monitoring strategies. They recognise the letters of the English alphabet, in upper and lower case, and know and use the most common sounds represented by most letters. They read high-frequency words and blend sounds orally to read consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Writing and Creating
Students understand that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events. When writing, students use familiar words, phrases and images to convey ideas. Their writing shows evidence of letter and sound knowledge, beginning writing behaviours and experimentation with capital letters and full stops.
Speaking and Listening
Students use appropriate interaction skills to listen and respond to others in a familiar environment. They listen for rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words. Students understand that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events. In informal group and whole class settings, students communicate clearly. They retell events and experiences with peers and known adults. Students identify and use rhyme, and orally blend and segment sounds in words.
Year Level Description
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the three strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will develop and strengthen these as needed.
In the Pre-primary year, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as some texts designed to inform. These include traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts and dramatic performances. They participate in shared reading, viewing and storytelling using a range of literary texts, and recognise the entertaining nature of literature.
The range of literary texts for Pre-primary to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Literary texts that support and extend Pre-primary students as beginner readers include decodable and predictable texts that range from caption books to books with one or more sentences per page. These texts involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisable, realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest; a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences; mostly familiar vocabulary, known, high-frequency words and single-syllable words that can be decoded phonically, and illustrations that strongly support the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including pictorial representations, short statements, performances, recounts and poetry.