English
Intent
At Holy Family Catholic School, English is woven seamlessly throughout our entire curriculum and school life. We have thoughtfully designed a curriculum that not only fosters enthusiasm and engagement in English but also promotes the development of transferable skills applicable across all subjects.
Our commitment to providing pupils with rich and diverse opportunities is reflected in our selection of high-quality, challenging texts, which serve to enhance their skills in speaking and listening, reading, and writing – essential tools for their future success and personal growth, as articulated in our Mission Statement.
Moreover, we are dedicated to making meaningful connections to our school’s Catholic ethos. By incorporating elements of Catholic Social Teaching into our English lessons, we aim to nurture not only the academic skills of our pupils but also their moral and ethical understanding, preparing them to be compassionate and informed members of society.
Aims
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
Our English curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Read confidently, fluently and with good understanding.
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
- 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.
- Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
- Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Implementation
At Holy Family we want all our pupils to be confident and resilient speakers, readers and writers. Our English lessons develop spoken language, reading and phonics, writing, grammar, spelling and vocabulary. The three phased approach used in English planning begins with a text and being able to retell a story, part of a story, unpicking vocabulary and grammar and then leading onto writing and writing at length.
Phonics is taught using Letters and sounds. Children are taught to segment and blend in their reading and writing through the phases.
Pupils are expected to read every night and their journals signed by their adults. Pupils take part in a range of reading activities in school, this includes whole class reading, guided reading and individual reading which encourage fluency and confidence using both fiction and non fiction books.
Spelling from Y2 and in KS2 follows No Nonsense Spelling and the children are expected to learn spellings to support their written work.
Handwriting and presentation of work is expected to be of a high standard in English and across the whole curriculum.
We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. To support children in moving towards independent writing we provide a wide range of activities including the use of film and imagery, music, ICT, trips and visits, modelled, shared and guided writing, peer assessment and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for a purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and listened to by an audience. We have developed a range of extra activities which are used to promote English within the school including World Book Day, Celebration assembly, Star writing, after school reading and phonics club.
Curriculum Overview
Impact
The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills. Supporting EAL pupils to gain confidence in reading and writing is a huge priority in school and we have seen standards improve dramatically.
As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have are improving 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. We hope that as children go through Holy Family School that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.
What our Children Say…
“I love writing stories and letters because it’s fun and interesting to write in somebody else’s shoes. I enjoy reading different books and linking what happens in them to other stories. In Year 6 we have been reading and writing about the war.”
“I love using my sounds to help me write.”
“Reading is fun because we learn new vocabulary and some very tricky words like avaricious.”
“My teacher reads to us every day and we talk about our favourite characters.”