English
English at St Mary's
In English & supported throughout all subjects, we aim to empower & enrich our children’s vocabulary & so prepare them for the next stage in their educational journey (& beyond) so that no child is hindered or held back by a deficit of language as a result of deprivation. We want them to be able to articulate themselves & their learning through a wide bank of subject specific terminology as well as being creative & innovative in their speech & writing. We aim to inspire our children to become fluent, confident life-long readers who can discuss the joy of literature as well as develop their own style & expression through wide opportunities for writing.
The Curriculum
Reading:
- All year groups take part in a daily whole class reading session. In these sessions, the teacher models reading with fluency, the pupils get the opportunity to read independently or with a partner and then pupils develop their knowledge of the text by answering a range of comprehension questions.
- All children in Reception, Year One and Year Two read individually with a member of staff at least each week.
- All class texts are taken from St Mary's Reading Spine to ensure pupils experience high quality texts.
- Pupils in Phase 2-5 phonics groups read are fully decodable books (this means they can read all the words using their phonics knowledge). These books are supplemented with 'banded books' which introduce children to tricky and high frequency words.
- All children in Reception and Key Stage 1 read a fully decodable book in pairs for ten minutes each day during phonics lessons- for more information on this, please click here.
For more information about Reading at St Mary's, please click here to go to our 'Reading' page.
Writing:
Daily English lessons will enable pupils to:
- Use talk to develop ideas.
- Use grammar and punctuation correctly to attain high levels of English writing.
- Understand and use technical vocabulary when discussing their reading and writing.
- Understand the sound and spelling system and use this to read and spell accurately.
- Write to a high standard in a variety of styles and forms showing an awareness of audience and purpose.
- Write with fluent, legible joined handwriting and take pride in the presentation of all of their work. For more information on handwriting, please click here.
Pupils will be given regular opportunities to use and transfer the skills that they are learning, in order to read and write competently throughout the range of subjects taught in school by using a cross curricular approach where themes are linked.
Click here to read the National Curriculum.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SpaG)
SPaG lesson are taught daily at St Mary's. Children will be taught about specific aspects of spelling, punctuation and grammar in these lessons and will get the opportunity to practice the skills in these lessons until they are confident with them. When confident, pupil's will be encouraged to use what they have learnt in SPaG lessons to improve their writing.
For further details on the teaching of English, please read the document below:
Please see the document below about the intent, implementation and impact of English at St Mary's.
Progression of Skills and Knowledge
English Concepts
English Learning Passports
Each year at St Mary's, all pupils receive a 'Learning Passport'. This passport contains all of the skills and knowledge that they will learn that year. It also has all of the skills and knowledge they have covered in the past. Teachers refer to this passport regularly and pupils view it frequently to ensure 'sticky knowledge' is developed- this means that pupils are quickly recalling what they have already learnt so skills and knowledge can be built on each year.