ST MARY'S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
English Curriculum 
Our Mission Statement
Celebrating Excellence through our Faith and Learning
Intent:
At St Mary’s we believe that our children need a curriculum that allows them to become enthusiastic and engaged learners. The knowledge and skills taught in English are set out in The National Curriculum (Department for Education, 2014). We have set these out in a year-group based sequence of learning (see age-related expectations), which allows progression by building upon and revisiting knowledge and skills learnt in previous years.
When designing the English curriculum challenge and fluency are key aspects: we search for purposeful, meaningful opportunities to extend and deepen the pupil’s learning; we endeavour to make strong links with the diverse multi - cultural backgrounds of the pupils and staff and utilise local heritage sites and places of other interest.
We nurture them to become eloquent and articulate speakers, readers who select texts for purpose and pleasure and writers who can take pride in their work, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts. Reading is core to our curriculum as we recognise its effect on our daily lives and is fundamental to the whole curriculum.
Pupils will:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- Develop a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word.
- Re-read, edit, revise and improve their own writing
- Confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- Use discussion and oracy skills in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas
- Become competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Implementation
Early reading is our priority and taught through our SSP, Letters and Sounds. We use a wide range of experiences, quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. We use cross curricular links as much as possible and a reading into writing approach- Talk for Writing, as well as short burst writing opportunities. Oracy is fundamental to our teaching across the curriculum to allow for discussion and the development of vocabulary. We are responsive and enthusiastic to the children’s interests and opinions and use these to inform our planning. A keep up approach is used to ensure children have the best chance to reach their potential.
How we will do this:
- Teachers create a positive reading and writing culture in school
- Promotion of reading through teachers reading out loud daily to their class.
- Pupils in EYFS and KS1 to have daily phonics sessions, following Letters and Sounds.
- Year 1-6, to use No Nonsense Spelling scheme, delivering regular sessions.
- Age appropriate spellings sent home weekly and tested in school
- Daily Guided Reading sessions in KS1, using the carousel approach.
- Pupils are being adventurous with vocabulary choices using Vocabulary Ninja.
- Pupils to acquire strategies to enable them to become independent learners in English (spelling rules and patterns and how to tackle unfamiliar words when reading).
- Pupils to discuss and to present their ideas to each other using talk partners, being able to elaborate and explain themselves clearly, make presentations and participate in debates.
- Working Walls – all classes aiding pupils and guiding them through the process of Reading and Analysing, Gathering Content, Planning and Writing.
- Vocabulary promoted through displays in class, all curriculum areas, enhancing and encouraging a wider use of vocabulary.
- Vocabulary mats to be used where needed and thesauruses and dictionaries which are easily accessible for pupils to use.
- Pupils are being exposed to, and knowledgeable about, literary styles, authors and genres. They can express preferences and give opinions, supported by evidence, about different texts.
- Displays of writing, in class, shared areas and on the school website, giving a purpose and audience, to encourage pride in work and to show that work is valued
- Reading events to encourage and promote enjoyment and opportunities to develop lifelong learning.
- Oracy and sentence stems are used by children to help them understand how to speak both formally and informally.
Impact
Children are confident and keen learners engaged in English. Rich and varied opportunities leads to children recognising the importance of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the real world. Our children will be fluent readers who enjoy reading for both pleasure and purpose with the appropriate stress and intonation. Every pupil will master the alphabetic bode whether they are SEN or not and across all of English will meet or exceeding their age related expectations. Outcomes of high quality work across the curriculum will lead to children leaving St Mary’s reaching their full potential.
The impact will be evaluated by:
Pupil achievement and progress
We measure pupil achievement – the acquisition of knowledge and skills and progress using a number of strategies, including:
- on-going teacher assessments, based on questioning in class, observations and pupil outcomes (which includes their work in books). Our assessments are supported by moderation in school and externally with other cluster schools; our age-related expectations (set out below) support teacher assessments
- in-year and end of year assessments (for writing, these are teacher assessments based on our age-related expectations and National Curriculum Teacher Assessment Frameworks for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2; for Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, these are a combination of teacher assessments and external tests, including Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests – ‘SATs’)
- Scrutiny of progress in books and pupil conferencing with children.
- Learning walks.
Pupil attitudes
We measure pupil attitudes using a number of strategies, including:
- feedback during pupil conferencing
- pupil and parent/carer surveys
- attitudes and behaviour in lessons across the curriculum
- the quality of the work produced, including taking pride in presentation
- attendance and punctuality
- Children, particularly older children, will be encouraged to reflect on and self-assess their learning in terms of enjoyment, relevance, inspiration and creativity.
Download more information: