Rationale
At Sacred Heart School, English and the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. Our aim is to ensure every child progresses to the best of their ability in the areas of English reading, writing, speaking and listening by the time they leave school in Year 6. We recognise that each child has their own starting point upon entry to every year group and progress is measured in line with these starting points to ensure every child can celebrate success.
English at Sacred Heart is not only a daily discreet lesson, but the cornerstone of the entire curriculum. It is embedded in all our lessons, and we strive for a high level of English for all. Through using high-quality texts, immersing children in vocabulary rich learning environments and ensuring curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met, the children at Sacred Heart will be exposed to a language rich, creative and continuous English curriculum which will not only enable them to become literate but will also develop a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful speaking and listening.
Reading
Writing
We aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing. The purpose and audience of the writing is shared with the children and they are provided with sufficient time to familiarise themselves with the structure of the text. Teachers use books, video clips and prepared short stories to provide focus to the writing cycle. The children learn the features and the grammar content of the writing before they plan, write and improve their work. Particular attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English: grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Every two weeks, the children will produce at least one extended piece of writing.
Intent
At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, we believe that learning is a change in long term memory and that children learn best by having opportunities to revisit previous learning. We teach English, including phonics, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and reading each day so that children can fully immerse themselves and have opportunities to reflect and build on prior learning.
It is our intention when teaching the English curriculum that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become lifelong learners and linguists. We strive to ensure that all our pupils receive a well-rounded learning experience when reading, writing, speaking and listening, which will equip them with the fundamental tools to achieve, throughout their learning journey at school. It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of high-quality texts, to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination.
- Our aim is to ensure that every child becomes a reader, a writer and confident speaker by the time they leave Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School.
- To promote and instil a love for reading, writing and high-quality literature into pupils of all ages.
- To derive an English curriculum, which develops the acquisition of knowledge and skills in line with the National Curriculum expectations and provides opportunities for children to develop their cultural capital of the world.
Cultural Capital
Children will develop an understanding about other cultures in our world and learn about different time periods through the texts used. Cultural capital will be further developed by learning about significant others through the varied and progressive texts that are used within the classroom.
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Developing Cultural Capital in English Text Choice |
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Implementation
The design of the English curriculum is based on principles derived from evidence through cognitive science:
Learning is most effective with spaced repetition. Retrieval of previously learnt content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
In addition to the principles, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short term and that sustained mastery takes high-quality teaching, sufficient coverage, time and effective practice. At our school, we have timetabled slots for phonics, spelling, handwriting, writing, focus reading and class book or story time.
Our English curriculum is derived around high quality texts and content that aims to develop children’s’ curiosity of the world and cultural capital.
We use books, texts and video clips to create opportunities to develop reading fluency and comprehension with a focus on key reading strategies and skills; develop vocabulary, grammar and punctuation knowledge, and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum; explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identify the purpose and audience; plan and write an extended piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.
Impact
The intended impact of our curriculum is that children build semantic and procedural knowledge. That children will have a sound understanding of phonics and will apply it to texts they read. Our intention is for children to be competent writers and
To ensure that all the children are academically prepared for life beyond primary school and throughout their educational journey.