English

English Overview

 At St Werburgh’s we ensure that all pupils are provided with excellent opportunities to develop their Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening skills.  We emphasise the importance of demonstrating high-quality reading and writing throughout the curriculum. In order to do this, we use CLPE, Power of Reading resources to ensure that pupils encounter a wide range of quality texts to develop their Reading and Writing. Teachers plan interesting, stimulating lessons that allow the children to practice and apply their English skills across the curriculum, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce learning. Tasks are carefully differentiated to ensure all children receive the appropriate level of challenge and support.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Speaking, Listening, Group Discussion and Interaction, and Drama permeate the whole curriculum. Interactive teaching strategies are used to engage all pupils. Children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in readiness for later life.

READING

At St Werburgh’s we strive to instill in our children a lifelong love of books and reading. We have therefore made a considerable investment in order to ensure the children encounter a rich, breadth of appealing, engaging fiction and non-fiction texts. From Foundation Stage to Key Stage Two reading is taught using a range of strategies including; shared reading, reading instruction, independent reading, and home reading.   In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 we use Collins Big Cat, phonetically decodable reading books which are matched closely to the child’s phonemic knowledge to enable to confidently decode and read. 

Reading is taught throughout the curriculum and links are made with other areas of learning, where possible. We have also developed close links with our local library, with classes visiting each week.

PHONICS AND SPELLING

At St Werburgh’s Catholic Primary School we use the Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds revised, phonics programme. 

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum, the Ofsted Deep Dive into reading and preparing your children to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check.

Pupils in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 receive daily, discrete phonics teaching using the programme. This is reinforced by an intervention scheme for any children who need some additional support to keep up with their peers. Children who are new to school in the UK or those who may need to continue with phonics into Key Stage 2 also receive quality teaching using the programme. We do expect pupils to catch up quickly though and use targeted intervention to ensure they rapidly reach the appropriate level for their age.

Once pupils are confident and fluent in the use of phonics and can apply this to their reading and writing, children are taught National Curriculum spelling using a wide range of strategies including Key Stage Two Support for Spelling, materials.

WRITING

At St Werburgh’s our approach to teaching writing is to ensure the children see the relevance of the task, writing for a specific purpose and audience. Writing skills are taught in Literacy lessons where children analyse different text types and identify the features of a specific genre. This is achieved in a number of ways including, modelled, shared, and guided writing. In this way, teachers can focus on teaching different aspects of the writing process including grammar, punctuation, and composition at a level appropriate to the children. All pupils are then provided with regular, sustained opportunities for independent writing throughout the curriculum in order to apply and practice their writing skills.

At St Werburgh’s we teach the children to use a joined, cursive handwriting script from Year One.