The English Curriculum at St Peter's
The teaching of English at St Peter’s is designed to promote a love of speaking and listening, reading and writing that will equip children with the knowledge and skills to progress throughout school and life. We aim for our children to be able to:
• Read easily, fluently and demonstrate a strong 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;
• Be competent in the arts of speaking and listening by taking part in discussions, presentations and debates.
How do we teach our English Curriculum – what does English look like at St Peter’s?
We teach our English curriculum through the acquisition of the key English skills mentioned above. These we believe will enable our children to access material in all curriculum areas, and provide a foundation for their learning throughout their school career. To achieve this, teachers are focussed on making English interesting, exciting and fun, by engaging the pupils with the joy and wonder of books and piquing their imagination and creativity. At St Peter’s we view the teaching of English as a fundamental part of the holistic development of the pupil, fostering positive behaviours and attitudes toward learning, and providing key knowledge and skills, to benefit pupils throughout their education and beyond.
The intended impact of our curriculum sequence, teaching and learning
The successful approach to the teaching of English at St Peter’s C of E Primary School will result in enthusiastic readers and confident writers who enjoy show casing their developing literary knowledge. Children will be confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. The outcomes of the children’s work in both English and topic books will demonstrate evidence of the high quality work and varied and cross curricular writing opportunities. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering purpose.
Children achieve highly at the end of EYFS and in the phonics screening check at the end of Year One. Attainment at the end of year 6 shows good progress has been made by our children and that as a school we identify and quickly put in place help for those children who find this subject challenging.
We know children are progressing through regular book checks and through talking with our children. These checks and conversations show a progression in their English knowledge and skills. Our children develop a love for reading and read for enjoyment. As writers they secure ambitious vocabulary and become into fluent writers who clearly and present their ideas coherently. All writing has a purpose and the children know what this is. They enjoy listening to stories and factual writing, are able to use a range of material to find out information across the curriculum therefore putting the skills acquired in English lessons into practice.