By the end of Early Stage 1 students respond to a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They demonstrate active listening behaviours to follow simple instructions and ask relevant questions. Students mix and communicate informally with peers, teachers and known adults in informal and structured classroom settings. They communicate clearly and purposefully when engaging in pair, group and class discussions. Students demonstrate an emerging awareness of how people use spoken language for different purposes. They deliver short presentations using familiar and learned vocabulary. Students explore the way familiar spoken texts are constructed and the features of these texts.Students develop reading, viewing and comprehension skills and strategies using context, grammar, word usage and phonics to make meaning from short, predictable printed texts on familiar topics. They interpret and provide relevant explanations of characters and main events in imaginative texts, and key ideas and visual features in short informative texts, making connections to personal experience. Students recognise, discuss and respond to the different kinds and purposes of various written, visual and digital texts from a variety of cultures. They read with some fluency and accuracy, drawing support from concepts of print and their developing sound and letter knowledge. Students explore and identify some features of texts, including the use of rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words in written and spoken texts.
Students engage in writing with an increasing awareness of the nature, purpose and conventions of written language. They create simple texts and recreate familiar imaginative texts by drawing on personal experience and through performance, drawing and images. Students retell events and experiences for known audiences that demonstrate an awareness of the text structure, basic grammar and punctuation needed. Students begin to apply simple editing techniques to their written work. They know and use letters and sounds of the alphabet to attempt to spell known words. Students write most lower and upper case letters appropriately, using the NSW Foundation Style as appropriate. They explore the use of digital technologies to construct a variety of multimodal texts. Students become aware of how to reflect on and assess their own and others’ learning.
By the end of Stage 2 students communicate expressively and clearly with growing proficiency about ideas and information in classroom, school and social situations for a range of purposes. They explore a variety of roles when interacting in pairs and groups, attending to different views and responding appropriately. Students use various listening behaviours to gather general ideas and key points from conversations, reports or spoken presentations. They identify the effect of purpose, audience and culture on spoken texts and shape and present ideas accordingly. Students identify common organisational patterns and language features of predictable spoken texts.Students independently read, view and respond to familiar and challenging texts and justify interpretations of ideas, information and events using a range of skills and strategies. They integrate a range of skills and strategies efficiently when reading, interpreting, analysing and evaluating texts and visual images. Students identify literal information in texts and make inferences, integrating and linking ideas and asking questions to clarify understandings. They recognise the representation of characters, settings and events in imaginative texts and start to evaluate point of view. They explain some ways in which authors and illustrators engage the interests of audiences and achieve a range of purposes. Students explore the structural and grammatical features and purposes for a range of written, visual and multimodal texts.
Students create well-structured imaginative, informative and persuasive texts in terms of topic, purpose, audience and language by drafting, proofreading and editing for familiar and unfamiliar audiences. They use simple and complex sentences, paragraphing, punctuation and grammatical features characteristic of the various texts to support meaning. Students spell familiar and unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter–sound correspondence, regular and irregular spelling patterns, spelling rules and a range of other strategies. They use increasing fluency when writing, applying NSW Foundation Style as appropriate, and develop digital publishing skills. Students explain and reflect on how they structure their writing to achieve intended purposes
By the end of Stage 2 students are responsive to ideas and show interest in and enthusiasm for science and technology. They appreciate the importance of science and technology in their lives and show a willingness to improve the quality of their local environment.
Students begin to initiate their own investigations and develop ideas for design tasks based on their prior science and technology knowledge and experiences. When using the processes of Working Scientifically and Working Technologically, they begin to develop and apply a sequence of steps.When engaging in the processes of Working Scientifically and Working Technologically, students safely and carefully manipulate available tools, materials and equipment. They identify ways of improving techniques and methods used in their investigations and design tasks. Students suggest ways that findings from the processes of Working Scientifically and Working Technologically can inform further investigations and design tasks. They use a range of representations to document and communicate methods, techniques, findings, ideas and information, including digital technologies as appropriate.Students identify when science is used to ask investigable questions and predict outcomes. They follow instructions to plan and conduct a range of first-hand investigations, including fieldwork. Students make and record observations, using formal measurements as appropriate and suggesting reasons why methods were fair or not. They organise and identify patterns in data using provided tables and simple column graphs. Students suggest reasons for observations and compare findings with predictions.Students explore a design task and develop a design brief that identifies simple design criteria. They continue to generate and develop ideas and begin to use creative thinking techniques, including brainstorming and sketching. They begin to develop and apply a structured plan to produce their solutions for built environments, information and products. Students use design criteria and feedback to explain how their design solution could be adjusted and improved to meet their needs and those of others.Students use their understanding of the Natural Environment to describe observable changes on the Earth’s surface that result from natural and human processes. They relate movements of the Earth to regular observable changes and describe interactions between objects that result from contact and non-contact forces. Students sequence key stages in the life cycle of a plant or animal, distinguish between living and non-living things and group them based on observable features. They identify relationships between living things and describe situations where science knowledge can influence their own and others’ actions.
Students relate the behaviour of heat to observable changes in state that occur between solids and liquids. In suggesting explanations for everyday observations, they identify how the observable properties of materials influence their use. Using their understanding of the Made Environment, students describe how products are designed, produced and used in different ways by people. They describe how people interact within a place and space, and explain how these are designed to meet the needs of users.
By the end of Stage 3 students communicate effectively, using considered language to entertain, inform and persuade audiences for an increasing range of purposes. They work productively and independently in pairs or groups to deliver effective presentations using various skills and strategies. Students collaborate with others to share and evaluate ideas and opinions and to develop different points of view. They express well-developed and well-organised ideas about literary texts and respond constructively to different opinions. They demonstrate active listening behaviours in order to gather specific information and ideas, recognising and exploring how spoken and written language differ and how spoken language varies according to context. Students evaluate characteristic language features and organisational patterns of challenging spoken texts.Students independently read and view an extensive range of complex texts and visual images using a comprehensive range of skills and strategies. They respond to themes and issues within texts, recognise point of view and justify interpretations by referring to their own knowledge, values and experiences. They identify, critically analyse and respond to techniques, literary devices and language features used by writers to influence readers. Students compare and accurately summarise information on a particular topic from different texts and make well-supported generalisations about the topic. Students identify text structure of a range of complex texts and explore how grammatical features work to influence an audience’s understanding of written, visual, media and multimodal texts.
Students create well-structured and well-presented written and multimodal imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for a wide range of purposes and audiences. They deal with complex topics, issues and language features. Students select information and ideas from personal, literary and researched resources, and adapt imaginative ideas and situations from literature. They make considered choices in written texts from an expanding vocabulary and from growing knowledge of grammatical patterns, complex sentence structures, cohesive links and literary devices. Students write well-structured sentences and paragraphs on particular aspects of the topic, clarifying and explaining how choices of language and literary features were designed to influence the meaning communicated in their texts. They spell most common words accurately and use a variety of strategies to spell less common words. They develop a fluent writing style and employ digital technology to present written texts effectively in a variety of ways for different purposes and audiences. Students evaluate the effectiveness of their writing by drafting, proofreading, editing, reviewing and publishing, focusing on grammatical features and the conventions of writing.