Our intent when planning the English curriculum

                                                        

At St Mary’s Primary School, English and the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. We intend on delivering a curriculum which:

• Uses the latest impactful research-based strategies to provide high quality provision for all.
• Ensures every single child becomes primary literate and progresses in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• Is embedded within all our lessons using cross-curricular themes.
• Makes use of high-quality texts, immersing children in vocabulary-rich learning environments and ensuring new curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met.
• Exposes children to a wide range of reading material with varying genres through: Talk4 Reading, an extensive range of books in the library selected by pupils.
• Encourages children to develop a love of reading for: information, interest and enjoyment through high quality modelled reading and a range of creative learning opportunities e.g. Bedtime Stories and Reading under the Stars.
• Exposes children to a language heavy, creative and continuous English curriculum which will not only enable them to become primary literate but will also develop a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful speaking and listening.
• Uses talk in both reading and writing sessions to support the children’s understanding and the ability to articulate what they read and what they want to write.
• Is fully inclusive to the differing groups of learners and needs of children in our school. 
• Allows pupils time to practise and develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style.

 

     

   How we implement the English curriculum:

    With these aims in mind, we are providing children with a range of reading opportunities :

• All pupils are taught phonics in both Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, following the RWI scheme. Phonics is also taught discretely daily. We subscribe to the RWI portal so all staff have access to  high quality CPD to support their practice.
• T4R lessons are incorporated for all years from EYFS to 6 in which reading skills are explicitly taught every day and that each group of children has time with their teacher in the reading session at least once a week. 
• Vulnerable groups are highlighted and the inclusion team and support staff are used to support these groups further to ensure progression and specific year group skills are secure. We use proven intervention programs, including 1-1 RWI phonics sessions and Fresh Start.
• Resources to support and enhance these lessons were purchased so that all staff felt proficient and skilled in delivering these sessions effectively.
• These resources allow children time to not only develop their reading and comprehension skills but also independence, a love of wider reading and exposure to rich vocabulary, which is key in all sessions for all learners.
• Reading is not only celebrated in classrooms at St Mary’s Primary School, around school you will find displays which celebrate authors and children’s favourite books. Year group reading spine books encourage pupils to read a board range of genres.
• Throughout the school year the importance of reading is enhanced through World Book Day, author and poet visits, parent reading workshops and a range of trips and visits which enrich and complement children’s learning.
• Children are provided with home-reading books which are catered to their level of reading. Emerging readers have a phonological reading book and a reading for pleasure book and free readers have access to our extensive reading provision.
• The school library has a selection of engaging books which children can borrow from school. We encourage pupils to put in requests for new books that they would like in the library. 

 

                 

At St Mary’s we ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression for all children:

• We use ‘talk’ through the Talk4Writing approach in EYFS and Key stage 1, to encourage children use talk around modelled texts to build an understanding of genre and provide them with the skills to talk about their grammar and writing choices. In key stage 2, study model texts to build their understanding of genre and grammar used. They then develop and apply these skills through shared and scaffolded writing before writing independently.

• We ensure that each year the group teaches the explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for that age group. 
• As well as teaching the objectives, teachers embed the skills throughout the year in cross-curricular writing opportunities.
• All year groups use the same format for assessing writing which have been produced in line with the end of Key Stage assessment frameworks as published by the Department for Education.
• Topic specific vocabulary and texts are instrumental in the planning and delivery of the whole school curriculum, ensuring that all children can access all areas of study, supporting the narrowing of the language gap.
• Grammar is taught through the Talk4Writing approach in EYFS and KS1 and in KS2 the year begins with a ‘Place Value of Grammar and Punctuation’ unit to secure fundamental grammar and punctuation understanding before moving on to writing units that use high-quality model texts.
• Spelling rules are explicitly taught in the classrooms a range of activities and through modelled and shared writing.
• Discrete handwriting lessons are taught, allowing children to develop accurately formed letters using the RWI approach beginning in EYFS into year 1. Once pupils are secure in letter formation, children learn the Kinetic Letter approach ensuring that as pupils enter year 3, they have begun to learn joined handwriting.  Teachers mark and write on working walls in a Kinetic style to provide models for our pupils.

 

         

     The impact English teaching will have:

• Children have a love of reading and can read for information, interest and enjoyment.
• Children have had access to a range of top-quality literature appropriate for their age, including literature from a range of cultures. 
• Children can decode fluently and read with expression.
• Children write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct.
• Children have an interest in words and their meanings, developing a rich vocabulary in spoken and written forms. All children are fully equipped with the vocabulary to access the whole curriculum.
• Children have experienced a range of text types and genres and are able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
• Children have powerful imaginations, inventiveness and critical awareness.
• Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.
• Pupils understand the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms to help communicate meaning clearly.