We take pride in our English curriculum. Reading is the life force of our English curriculum and quality literature is the heart of our planning and implementation. We enjoy planning bespoke English units that engage the children and promote a lifelong appreciation of the written word. We draw on real experiences, and real reasons for writing to spark passion and pride in the work our children produce.
Sound English skills are essential for progress across the curriculum and to prepare pupils effectively for tasks of adult life.
All our teachers and support staff have a responsibility to develop pupils’ competence in reading, writing, speaking and listening and to ensure that pupils become competent users of language, and can access the curriculum effectively and achieve their potential.
At St Andrew’s CE Primary School, we recognise the effect that a confident, fluent and coherent understanding of English will have on a pupil’s progress, both inside and outside of the school environment. We understand how a strong grounding in English will impact the future learning and development of a pupil in all aspects of their life and we aim to provide a balanced and broad curriculum which encompasses writing practice, including handwriting, spelling, widening vocabulary, and writing for different styles, purposes, and audiences, as well as focussing on spoken English, reading, grammar and pronunciation.
Speaking and Listening
We begin by immersing our children in a vocabulary rich environment, designed to positively impact on communication and language skills from the very beginning of their journey in EYFS and then beyond. As the children progress through each year group, they are given many opportunities to perform their writing and use drama and performance to enhance their learning.
Our children follow a rigorous systematic synthetic phonics programme that begins as soon as they join us in EYFS and continues until they are secure with Phase 6. We use Letters and Sounds as our framework, but have adapted it to ensure it is easy to follow, multi-sensory and engaging and part of our fully decodable reading library.
Here at St Andrew’s CE Primary School, we love reading. Our aim is to actively promote the value of reading, not only to help our children achieve academically, but also to promote mental health and wellbeing. We have daily ‘Read to Relax’ sessions where our children get comfy and cozy and curl up with a good book. We want to give the children the tools to escape into a world beyond theirs, where they can do magic, sail up the Amazon river or travel back in time.
We use quality literature to enhance our writing, linking it to real life contexts and giving children purpose to their writing. We begin by laying the foundations for writing in the EYFS, ensuring our provision is enhanced with all the tools the children might need to begin their writing journey. We continue to build on those foundations as the children move through the school, adding more skills to their repertoire until they can write at length, applying taught spelling and grammar rules, and edit their work appropriately.