English

Curriculum Intent

It is our intent at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School to provide all of our children with a high-quality education in English, which develops their love of reading, writing and discussion. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, children have the required knowledge and skills that allow them to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively. We believe that this will give our children the tools they need to succeed in life.

With regards to writing, we intend for our children to be able to plan, draft, proofread, evaluate and edit their writing. To be able to do this effectively, children will be encouraged to use visual literacy, creating visual images to support their story planning; in addition to developing effective transcription and composition all of which support the planning and writing process. They will also develop awareness of the audience, purpose and text type for a piece of writing as well as an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent and legible handwriting. With regards to Spelling, our teachers will show children how to understand the relationships between words. They will also teach children how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than one meaning. Children will be taught to use Standard English. 

With regards to Reading, phonics will be emphasised in the early teaching of reading to beginners when they start school. We intend to encourage all children to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live; to establish an appreciation and love of reading; to gain knowledge across the curriculum and develop their comprehension skills. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all children are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.

English Curriculum Implementation

These aims are embedded in our English lessons and our wider curriculum. We plan activities in English so that they build on the children’s prior learning, while we give children of all abilities the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding. We also plan progression so that there is an increasing challenge for the children as they move up through the school. 

With regards to speaking and listening, we aim for our children to be able to speak clearly, fluently and coherently, to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions effectively. 

We achieve this by: 

• Giving our children confidence in themselves as speakers and listeners by showing them that we value their conversations and opinions. We also encourage a respect for the views of others.
• Being aware that as adults, we provide a model of speakers and listeners in our day-to-day interactions with them and with other adults in our school. 
• Helping them to articulate their ideas and provide purposes and audiences for talk within a range of formal and informal situations and in individual, partner, group and class contexts. 
• By providing opportunities to perform to a larger audience, in assemblies and productions, where children’s efforts and skills are acknowledged by staff, parents, carers, visitors and peers. 
• By providing a range of experiences where children can work collaboratively and participate in opportunities to reflect on talk and explore real and imagined situations through role play, hot seating, drama and discussions. 
• By developing the children’s ability to listen with attention and understanding in all areas of the curriculum and where necessary, asking and responding to questions appropriately.
• Encouraging children to act as a guide for visitors to school or representing the school on educational visits outside of the classroom. 

With regard to reading, children are given opportunities to take part in whole class, guided, shared, peer and independent reading throughout the school. 

In Foundation Stage and KS1 the children read books from the Big Cat phonics; Bug Club; Dandelion; Songbirds; Word Sparks and from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. In KS2 the children use the Accelerated Reader Scheme. 

At St Joseph’s, we use a mix of whole class and guided reading for the explicit and direct, differentiated teaching of reading comprehension. In Foundation Stage, children generally start guided reading sessions from a point in the year when they have learnt their sounds and can apply these: they are segmenting and blending. Guided reading then continues on throughout KS1. All KS2 children receive an additional 30 minutes English session each day that is dedicated to guided reading, peer reading or spelling activities. Reading at home is regarded as an important part of reading development. Children select their own texts for home/school reading (both from the Accelerated Reader stock and ‘Reading for pleasure’ books) and these are changed as soon as they are finished. Classes take part in daily storytimes at the end of the day to continue to foster a love for reading. 

Reading is not only celebrated in classrooms at St Joseph’s, around school you will find displays which celebrate authors, children’s favourite books and reading reward schemes.  In addition, throughout the school year the importance of reading is enhanced through World Book Day, author and drama visits, parent reading workshops and a range of trips and visits which enrich and complement children’s learning.

With regard to writing in our school, teachers promote writing in English lessons but also across other areas of the curriculum. They look for ways to inspire and motivate children. Writing is taught through age-appropriate texts, varied curriculum topics or real life situations and current affairs. 

• We provide experiences where the children can acquire confidence and a positive attitude to writing. 
• We develop and sustain writing skills by providing opportunities for children to write for a range of purposes and audiences. 
• We use guided writing sessions to model writing skills, teaching children how to compose, amend and revise their writing. 
• We teach children to become critical readers of their own writing by using self-evaluation and checking their work independently for sense, accuracy and meaning. 
• We teach grammar and punctuation in the context of children’s own writing, as well as through discrete lessons. 
• We teach children to develop their ability to organise and present writing and in different ways. 

English Curriculum Impact

Children at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School will have developed a love of reading and will be able to produce written work in all areas of the curriculum. 

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferable skills.  With the implementation of the writing journey being well established and taught thoroughly in all key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar to them and the teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills.

As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar, punctuation and grammar objectives.   

Children make at least good progress in Reading and Writing from their last point of statutory assessment, or from their starting point in Reception. The impact of our English curriculum at St Joseph’s is not only be measured by assessment procedures, which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally: 

• EYFS % of pupils achieving a ‘Good level of development’ (GLD)
• Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 
• End of KS1 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in reading and writing 
• End of KS2 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in reading, writing and GPS.

It is also measured by how effectively it helps our children develop into well-rounded individuals who carry with them the English knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners who are ready for the next stage of their education and valuable future citizens. We hope that as children move on from us to further their education and learning that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.

As a school, we continually seek out ways to improve our teaching of English by taking part in regular professional development and implementing evidence based research such as Education Endowment Fund.