Intent
English has a pre-eminent place in education and society. A high-quality education in English will ensure our pupils reach their educational, moral and spiritual potential. Our curriculum aims to equip pupils with the skills they need to be able to communicate and express themselves effectively both orally and in writing. Our children will develop a love and appreciation for reading, writing and discussion, which will set them up with the skills that are essential for academic and career success, as well as emotional well-being. They will leave St Paul’s being able to read fluently and with good understanding as well as being able to write coherently, adapting their language and style to the appropriate audience and purpose. These are skills which can be applied to other subjects and a variety of situations, helping our children to become creative, critical thinkers.
At St Paul’s C of E Junior School, we have designed our English curriculum with the intent that our children will:
• express and communicate meaning in spoken language;
• listen to and interpret what others say and match style and response to audience, context and purpose;
• read, understand and engage with various types of text both for pleasure and for learning;
• communicate effectively using written language, making and shaping text appropriately, according to context, purpose and audience;
• write creatively for an audience and for personal enjoyment, using their imagination to bring their writing to life.
Implementation
At St Paul’s, our implementation covers two key component parts – reading and writing. Although speaking and listening is a key area of English, it is woven through everything we do and therefore, not planned for discretely.
Reading
Reading for Practice:
- A consistent approach to phonics catch-up using Read Write Inc Phonics programme
- Daily reading with an adult for children who are not yet secure in
- Access to age- and reading level appropriate texts
- Encouragement of home reading.
Reading for Meaning:
- Daily whole class guided reading lessons
- Clearly structured units of work
- Whole class and small group discussion of a text
- Strong vocabulary development
- Reading across the curriculum
Reading for Pleasure:
- Access to a range of high-quality, appropriately pitched texts
- Allocated time for independent quiet reading
- Regular opportunities to hear stories read aloud
- Opportunities to talk about books
Writing
- Consistent approach to the teaching of writing including modelling, shared writing and guided writing
- Effective use of the working wall to display the learning journey and supporting resources
- High-quality texts and visual stimuli
- Strong grammar teaching woven throughout writing units
- Clear writing process (immersion/exploration, planning, drafting, editing and redrafting – and publishing where appropriate)
- Writing for a range of audiences and purposes
- Exploration of poetry through performance, reading and writing
- Strong vocabulary development
- Quality teaching of the editing process
- Rigorous spelling teaching using the Read Write Inc Spelling programme
- Whole-school cursive handwriting progression based on the Andrew Brodie scheme