Central to the study of English in the NSW English syllabus is the study of a wide range of texts. NESA requires that in each year, students must study examples of spoken, print, visual, media, multimedia and digital texts.

Across a stage of learning, text selection must give students experience of:

• texts which are widely regarded as quality literature
• widely defined Australian literature, including texts that give insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia
• a wide range of literary texts from other countries and times, including poetry, drama scripts, prose fiction and picture books
• texts written about intercultural experiences
• texts that provide insights about the peoples and cultures of Asia
• everyday and community texts
• a wide range of factual texts that present information, issues and ideas
• texts that include aspects of environmental and social sustainability
• an appropriate range of digital texts, including film, media and multimedia.

From Kindergarten, we select texts for the purpose of:

• learning to read (for example decodable texts) to facilitate literacy skills.
• reading to learn in order to gain knowledge about audience, purpose, structures and language features.

Quality literature is the best example for this learning to occur. In the writing process, examples of quality literature are exemplars for students to create their own texts.