English teaching at St Augustine’s Catholic Primary Curriculum

Intent

At St Augustine’s CPS, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of literacy through reading, writing and discussion. We believe that language and literacy is fundamental to the overall development of the child and their access to the curriculum in all its aspects. We aim to deliver quality teaching of basic and higher order reading, writing and listening skills to enable children to become confident, successful and to foster skills, which will remain with them for life.

Implementation

The aims and objectives are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Teachers adapt and use the Talk for Writing scheme as appropriate to their classes, but also ensure that cross curricular links with concurrent topic work are woven into the programme of study. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English.

Aims and Objectives

We want all our pupils by the end of Year Six to be able to:

- read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding;

- be able to orchestrate a full range of reading cues (phonic, graphic, syntactic, contextual) to monitor their reading and correct their mistakes;

- understand the sound and spelling system and use this to read and spell accurately;

- have fluent, joined and legible handwriting;

- have an interest in words and their meaning and a growing vocabulary;

- know, understand and be able to write in a range of genres in fiction and poetry, and understand and be familiar with some of the ways in which narratives are structured through looking at the author’s use of setting, character and plot;

- understand, use and be able to write a range of non-fiction texts;

- plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing;

- have a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading and writing;

- be interested in books, read with regularity and enjoyment and evaluate and justify their preferences;

- through reading and writing, develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.

Impact

As a result we have a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. 

Reading and Phonics

“When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” - St. Jerome, Patron Saint of Reading

At Saint Augustine's, we recognise the huge impact that reading can have on the lives of our children. Daily reading, in the classroom and at home, is actively encouraged and children are supported with their learning in a multitude of ways.
Starting with the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds' programme, children are taught skills of decoding and blending sounds together to form words. Using words games and rhymes, Little Wandle ensures that children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through the school.
Throughout the school, children are exposed to a great number of texts, as well as working through the Big Cats reading stages. An extensive selection of fiction and non-fiction books are available to read and borrow in our school library and we make regular trips to the local library where children are free to explore and borrow other books.