Irish Curriculum

The Irish Curriculum says

Giglets delivers

The Primary Language Curriculum sets out a vision of children as communicators, readers, writers and thinkers. It presents an understanding of primary classrooms as places where children are enabled to progress at their own pace in environments and through relationships that are supportive, engaging and inclusive.

The aims of the Primary Language Curriculum are presented in three groups focusing on: children and their lives, children's communications and connections with others, and children's language learning and development.

Being supportive, engaging and exclusive is at the heart of everything that Giglets does. When reading, pupils can choose between two dyslexic friendly fonts, eight different font sizes and ten options for tailored text and background colours. Children love reading with Giglets as it is an exciting, digital resource. Texts are enhanced with audio support, theme music, animation and illustration.

1. Children and their lives

The Primary Language Curriculum aims to support teachers to:

• enable children to build on prior knowledge and experience of language to enhance their language learning;
• encourage children to embrace Irish positively, and promote identity through the use of the Irish language;
• encourage children of different languages and cultures to be proud of and to share their heritage.

At Giglets, we understand the importance and value of languages. In the Giglets library you will find texts in over 35 different languages, including Irish and English. It’s a matter of pride that we have added so many Irish texts to the Giglets library in recent years. Where a text is available in another language, it is also available in English. Giglets is ideally placed to support language learning and awareness.

The Giglets online library also includes a diverse range of texts from different languages and cultures. Original stories from Ireland, Scotland, Iran, Portugal, Bangladesh feature, among many, many others. These texts give learners an insight into other countries and cultures helping them understand the diversity of language and culture and develop their own cultural identity.

2. Children's communications and connections with others

The Primary Language Curriculum aims to support teachers to:

• embrace children's uniqueness by nurturing their appreciation of their home language, their understanding of language and diversity, and their ability to use different languages, gestures and tools to communicate with people in a variety of contexts and situations;
• encourage and enable children to communicate effectively in the first, second and heritage languages;
• enable children to fully engage with and enjoy a wide range of relevant and meaningful linguistic and communicative experiences with peers and adults.

At Giglets, we understand the importance and value of languages. In the Giglets library you will find texts in over 35 different languages, including Irish and English. Where a text is available in another language, it is also available in English. Giglets is ideally placed to support an appreciation of all languages and language learning.

Giglets texts are meant to be shared, enjoyed and discussed. Text specific Higher Order Thinking Skills Questions serve as fantastic discussion and writing prompts to develop critical thinking and a deep understanding of a text. Bright and engaging illustrations and animations, as well as thought provoking theme music are all excellent oracy prompts. The Giglets resources section provides many task templates and activity ideas for promoting oracy and communication skills.

3. Children's language learning and development

The Primary Language Curriculum aims to support teachers to:

• promote a positive disposition towards communication and language by fostering within children a lifelong interest in and a love of language learning for personal enjoyment and enrichment;
• broaden children's understanding of the world through a rich variety of language experiences and through fostering an awareness and appreciation of other languages and cultures in an enriching learning environment;
• enable children to use language imaginatively and creatively and to appreciate its aesthetic aspects;
• encourage children to engage personally with and think critically about a broad range of spoken, gesticulated, written and multimodal texts;
• support children to develop their literacy skills and enable them to progress at their own learning pace in oral language, reading and writing;
• nurture within children an awareness of language, allowing them to appreciate and understand the content and structure of languages.

Giglets understands how important a wide variety and choice of texts is for inspiring a love of reading. The Giglets library has hundreds of texts to choose from covering a wide range of topics, genres and forms. The Giglets texts, theme music and illustration are proven to be wonderful creative prompts. The 'Create' question within every set of text specific Higher Order Thinking Skills questions is also a teacher favourite for creative prompts.

To promote reading and comprehension skills, Giglets provides a levelled library with supporting text specific tasks. Sets of Higher Order Thinking Skills questions promote a deep understanding of a text. Automatically marked Reading Test Questions feature a variety of question types including multiple choice, sequencing, find and copy, and matching styles. These not only engage learners but allow teachers to assess understanding on a deeper level. These can also be tracked in the reporting section and used to inform next steps in learning.