ENGLISH
ENGLISH
INTENT:
English is both an essential subject in its own right and the means of access to wider learning.Therefore, the purpose of English at St Paul’s Primary School is to develop an ability to: read fluently, write precisely, comprehend analytically and to begin a lifelong, individual relationship with language. All children are challenged and encouraged to excel across all areas of English. At St. Paul’s, we use a progressive, text based approach which provides an ambitious, experience and language rich, connected curriculum; accessible to all pupils in school from EYFS to Year 6. We introduce new concepts through high quality texts, modelled examples and varied structures, incrementally building on prior knowledge and enabling all children to access experiential learning when developing knowledge and understanding.Decoding, reading for meaning, handwriting, spelling and grammar skills are practised daily to ensure key concepts and skills are embedded and children can recall this information confidently. Ultimately, we want pupils to become fluent in the fundamentals of English, to be able to read and write effectively and creatively. Our approach to English embraces the National Curriculum aims, and provides guidance to help pupils to become:
Talkers – building from a strong foundation of spoken language, developed through play, shared reading and a language rich environment, pupils can frame and articulate their thinking precisely and reflectively.
Readers – beginning with a repertoire of core texts, the conventions of reading and rigorous phonic knowledge pupils move from dependence to independence to co-ordinate the use of phonic, semantic and syntactic cues across a broad, varied and exciting range of increasingly complex texts.
Writers – exploration of a wide range of texts will enable pupils to become increasingly aware of purpose, form, voice, written language structures and conventions promoting multi-dimensional progress in transcription, composition, spelling and grammar.
IMPLEMENTATION:
English at St Paul’s:
Core English skills are taught daily, focussing on key reading and writing skills including phonics, decoding, handwriting, spelling and grammar.
A range of thoughtfully selected, high quality texts are used to challenge all children and give them the opportunity to read fluently, discuss reflectively and write creatively.
English retrieval sessions are used to revisit previous learning and ensure English skills are embedded before moving onto their next English lesson.
Children are taught through targeted differentiated small group and mixed ability whole class lessons.
Lessons are sequenced and aligned to the whole school genre progression document to ensure coverage and development of English topics.
Lessons use an explore, model, apply, refine approach to guide children through their understanding of reading and writing processes and include direct teaching of vocabulary, phrasing and written structures
Homework is set to develop and review children's learning.
Where possible, links are made with other subjects across our Commando Joe’s RESPECT curriculum.
IMPACT:
As a result of our English teaching at St Paul's you will see:
Fluent readers and writers who have a love for language.
Engaged children who are all challenged.
Children who are able to employ a range of strategies to approach unfamiliar texts, talk precisely about what they have read and apply a range of writing structures appropriately to create writing that sings .
Accurate use of grammatical language by pupils to support and develop textual understanding.
Confident children who can all talk about books and their learning and the connections between texts and genres.
Lessons that use a variety of carefully designed and selected resources to support learning.
Previously learnt skills used consistently without errors.
Learning that is tracked and monitored to ensure all children make good progress.