We believe that English, as it is currently taught in New Zealand, could focus more closely on technical ability with language, as well as the conceptual aspects, such as ideas, language features, and processes that are currently taught. At Silverlining Education, our experience tells us that the conceptual and technical aspects need to be taught together: the clear expression of ideas is dependent on a student’s ability to craft complex, grammatically correct sentences. Therefore, we offer a fusion of technical and academic English to give the students the technical competency they need to succeed. We see our approach as blending the best of traditional and contemporary teaching practice.

The move away from explicit teaching has also affected numeracy rates in some Western countries. We believe that there are two crucial turning points in the New Zealand student’s experience where technique-based teaching is important. These are years 3 and 4, when multiplication and other new concepts are introduced, and years 7 to 10, when students should be building their skill base for NCEA, IB, CIE and other assessments. Our combination of traditional and contemporary teaching methods will give students robust foundations on which to build solid, all-around ability in this subject.