English
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body
Intent
English skills are integral to the holistic development of every child, enriching them culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. We recognise English is a distinct subject, which also serves in the delivery of other subjects.
Our English curriculum is designed to be comprehensive, inspired by a wide array of high-quality texts and experiences to develop linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world, whilst celebrating the rich and diverse language backgrounds of our pupils.
We provide an ambitious, bespoke, English curriculum that builds upon prior knowledge, equipping children with the skills they need to become confident and articulate communicators, both verbally and in writing. Through a book-led approach, our curriculum not only fosters the development of speaking, reading, and writing skills, but also instils a lifelong passion for reading. As our practitioners nurture all the skills of language, we aim to empower our students to fully engage with the world around them and prepare them for future life, where they will actively participate as valued members of society who:
- Speak, read and write for purpose and pleasure, communicating their ideas, views and feelings with articulacy.
- Are readers of volition.
- Use a broad and enriched vocabulary.
- Have excellent comprehension skills.
- Demonstrate confidence and proficiency in spoken language and listening skills to express themselves clearly, accurately, and imaginatively.
- Adjust their language and style appropriately when writing for different contexts, purposes, and audiences to become competent authors.
- Utilise discussion to clarify and expand upon their understanding and ideas.
- Deliver formal presentations and participate in debates with confidence.
- Value and appreciate the diversity of our literary heritage.
Implementation
At St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School, we firmly believe in the transformative power of literature and thus place quality children’s books at the core of our curriculum. To achieve this, we collaborate closely with our school literacy advisor to meticulously select texts that not only educate, but also captivate and inspire our students allowing the texts to evolve. Our curriculum is structured to centre around these challenging and culturally relevant texts chosen on literary merit, which serve as the driving force behind our lessons, while remaining aligned with the National Curriculum.
Our curriculum is designed to develop efficient skills in spoken language, reading and writing. Through the rich diet of books selected, we aim to provide opportunities for all children to build confidence and proficiency in spoken language and listening skills, which are taught through carefully planned lessons. This can be explored though quality book talk, rhymes, songs, discussions, debates, drama, choral speaking, assemblies and readings at mass. At St Thomas, we believe that by nurturing strong oral communication skills, we empower our students to become articulate and expressive individuals.
Children begin their journey to learn to read in Nursery, through sound awareness pre-phonics work. This the moves into EYFS and KS1 though our systematic and synthetic phonics programme, ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds’. Phonic lessons are taught daily and decodable books are matched to the phase the children are working on to support their learning from home. Further to this, reading practice sessions are taught three times a week to develop decoding, prosody and comprehension. Rigorous assessment immediately identifies any children who continue to have gaps in their phonics knowledge. ‘Rapid Catch-up’ interventions are delivered for these children.
Following our phonics programme, in KS2 reading is developed through daily reading sessions. These sessions, whether conducted as a whole class or in small groups, are focused on high quality discussion and dialogue to deepen children’s understanding of texts. The books are carefully selected to ensure they are both motivating and challenging whilst ensuring steady progress is aligned with National Curriculum benchmarks. To build comprehension, children have access to a wide range of text, encountering different forms to allow them to develop a wide knowledge of the world. In addition, children are supported in one-on-one reading sessions with their teachers or teaching assistants. These sessions aim to provide opportunities for children to enhance their fluency and prosody in reading, which is further supported by the teaching of fluency in class. Additional sessions will be offered to children requiring extra support and address gaps.
Children will continue to take home an appropriate reading book from recommended reading schemes, to reflect their reading ability. Further to this, each class has its own class selection of in their class libraries. These social reading environments are regularly monitored and updated to ensure children have access to a wide range of age-appropriate appealing books.
Children are encouraged to select their own book from the class selection to allow children to explore their interests.
To further inspire reading for pleasure, time is allocated for teachers to model the reading process to the whole class as an expert reader. This is a time to properly enjoy reading and the sharing of reading. Our teachers are all readers themselves and actively engage with our children to share their knowledge of children’s literature.
Impact
The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning, and transferable skills. We aim that by the end of Key Stage 2, all of our children will have made considerable advancement from their starting points in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Consistent monitoring of planning, lessons, and pupils' work demonstrates the clear progress the pupils achieve. By effectively laying the groundwork through our phonics programme and ‘book led’ approach to learning, we have confident readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their knowledge and skills and achieve age related expectations and above. They relish articulating their thoughts and ideas with one another and recognise the value of English in their present and future lives.
As a result, our children also become more confident, fluent readers, who demonstrate and talk about a love of reading along with reading for information and knowledge. Their enjoyment, fluency and confidence of reading prepares them for the next steps in their education as they transition to secondary school.
The teaching sequence for writing is well established across the school and this creates confident and proficient writers. By the time they are in upper Key Stage 2, children write for a range of purposes and audiences and leave as authors. Skills taught in English lessons are applied to other subjects, facilitating consolidation and a deeper understanding of how and when to use punctuation, grammar and subject-specific vocabulary.
By laying the foundations, children move on from us to further their education, their creativity and passion for English. Through this, their high aspirations will travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.
Enrichment
Supported by our close collaboration with our literacy advisor, the children's lives are enriched as our curriculum continuously evolves.
Children are exposed to high-quality books, including many new prize-winning texts. Our books are updated regularly both in our English planning and within the class social reading areas. Furthermore, to foster a love for literature and poetry among our students, we celebrate World Book Day, National Poetry Day and organise special reading initiatives, including Christmas and Summer challenges.
In addition, we are always seeking to provide opportunities for children to access books through initiatives like the Rotary Alumni Books4Home Scheme, which ensures every child in our school receives a book as a gift at Christmas.
Author visits provide inspiration for our children and supports them in recognising that we are all authors in our own right. Furthermore, visits to the theatre support learning and cultivate curiosity, teaching children to imagine the unimaginable.
Educational visits are planned to deepen pupils understanding of class texts and provide opportunities to write. Further trips are arranged, to provide children with opportunities to write about real experiences. Additionally, through the 'Young Writers' programme, children receive opportunities to become published authors and enter writing competitions.
Regular parent workshops, led by different member of the team support parents and carers in establishing reading as a pleasurable activity, one that will massively support their child in their education and future life.
Our community book swap initiative is something we are very proud of. It allows our local community and families to access a range of books aimed at different age groups and is accessible, free of charge, at all times.
Letter Formation & Handwriting
Our children are are taught letter formation from Nursery and we follow the Letter-join handwriting scheme. Writing is introduced through mark-making opportunities leading to more structured activities.
Letter formation will progress as the children do and the expectation is that by the end of Reception, children will be forming their letters correctly.
By Year 2, the children should be working towards a formation that will eventually lead into their joined up writing.
By the time the children leave St. Thomas of Canterbury, they will have hopefully mastered the art of joined up writing.
