Click on the sections below to explore and learn more about the English curriculum at Our Lady & St Paul’s.
At Our Lady and St Paul’s RC Primary School, we believe that reading is a vital skill for children to develop so they can understand and enjoy the world around them.
We strive to nurture a love of reading in our children and aim to enrich children’s learning through teaching that utilises imaginative stories and challenging texts. We promote essential reading behaviours, encouraging our children to read frequently, independently and with curiosity. This curriculum is delivered through RWI phonics, shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day.
Our curriculum is designed to equip pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature, through regular reading for pleasure. It aims for all children to acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language. A good understanding of English is the foundation of the entire curriculum and children who are confident and adept readers and writers, will be empowered to succeed in all other areas.
Our Catholic ethos and school values are at the heart of our English curriculum and it promotes our children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, ensuring that they are reflective and responsible citizens. Fundamental British Values are actively promoted in English lessons in order to prepare the children for life in Modern Britain.
Speaking and Listening
At Our Lady and St Paul’s, speaking and listening is developed from EYFS and beyond. We nurture children’s speaking and listening skills through a variety of approaches. We develop these skills so that our children are capable of expressing their own ideas clearly and confidently, in a safe and supportive environment. The children are encouraged to explore ideas through talk; challenge each other’s opinions and develop their own reasoned arguments, as well as talking in full sentences with a clear and confident voice.
Grammar and Punctuation
At Our Lady and St Paul’s, we are determined that every child who leaves Year 6 will have accessed and experienced detailed and precise teaching of all expected grammar objectives. If these are not achieved at the expected time, then these will be reviewed and covered in consequent year groups.
Reading Intent
Children at Our Lady and St Paul’s RC Primary School will learn to read fluently and demonstrate a good understanding and comprehension. Our children will engage with a range of genres and develop their understanding of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that children have opportunities to develop a love of reading. We want our children to gain a thirst for reading a range of genres and participating in discussions about the books. Our curriculum has also been designed to ensure that our children not only read for pleasure, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors, but to use books to research and gather new knowledge to extend their understanding.
When children leave Our Lady and St Paul’s, we expect them to be avid readers, children who read fluently and widely and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read.
Writing Intent
Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that our children enjoy writing and give them opportunities to write clearly, accurately and coherently for a range of contexts; write in different styles and for different purposes and audiences; develop a wide vocabulary and a solid understanding of grammar rules; apply spelling patterns correctly and present their work well. We aim to immerse the children in a rich, creative and carefully planned curriculum.
We encourage children to take pride in the presentation of their writing, and develop a neat, joined, handwriting style by the time they leave our school. We teach children spelling and grammar both discretely and as part of our analysis of texts and provide opportunities for them to apply these skills to their own writing.
We teach our children to be able to identify their own areas for improvement in writing, so that they can edit their work effectively during and after the writing process. We want children to understand and learn the craft of writing so that they plan produce and publish something of which they are proud.
Grammar and Punctuation
At Our Lady and St Paul’s, we are determined that every child who leaves Year 6 will have accessed and experienced detailed and precise teaching of all expected grammar objectives. If these are not achieved at the expected time, then these will be reviewed and covered in consequent year groups.
Our English Subject Leaders are Miss Fletcher and Mrs Daly.
