Our English Curriculum Intent
At St Bede’s RC Primary School, we strive to provide a quality English curriculum that is exciting, engaging and fosters a love of reading, writing and discussion. We understand that children’s needs are individual and therefore aim to motivate and nurture each child through our broad and balanced English curriculum so that they can be aspirational and reach their full potential.
Our school recognises that English skills need to be taught, rehearsed, applied, consolidated, practised, revisited in order to be embedded and mastered and therefore we provide lots of opportunities in English and across the curriculum to do this.
At St Bede’s Primary School, we recognise that English skills in communication, reading and writing are essential life skills that are needed constantly in everyday experiences and therefore our high-quality education will teach these skills and give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, reading, understanding and writing and we aim to teach and develop skills in all of these areas through teaching approaches which are responsive to children’s needs and learning styles.
Through the teaching of English, we aim to develop:
Our English Curriculum Implementation
Our aim in English is for learning to have a purpose and be highly engaging. We want our children to be able to apply the key skills of learning in a variety of contexts, genre and across the curriculum. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum and framework, that provides purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use a wide range of quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire children, which are closely matched to class interests and dynamics.
St Bede’s uses the National Curriculum aims for English and needs of our children to provide a curriculum that develops a secure knowledge – base and skills in English through a clear pathway of progression starting from the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Our writing units are planned using a reading week – where we immerse the children in the chosen text, using this time for shorter writing opportunities. The 3 week (approximately) which follow, are structured around the Jane Considine Units of work. The units are followed from Year 1 to Year 6. Teachers use their assessment of their class and will adapt accordingly when necessary. Children complete two longer writing pieces: one scaffolded by the teacher where they build and practise the key skills and one independent piece of writing which will demonstrate the skills learnt. Over a half term, there will be one fiction and one non-fiction unit completed.
Within our curriculum children are taught the structures of varying types of writing, both narrative and non-fiction. They develop the skills in writing which enable them to successfully write in a variety of styles and text types. Please see our St Bede’s Writing Curriculum Overview.
Children will learn the skills of speaking and listening, reading and writing through high levels of exposure to revisiting prior knowledge and skills, teaching and learning of new skills in a modelled and scaffolded way, rehearsal, practise, application of skills and consolidation, across the curriculum.
Across the curriculum children are given opportunities to develop reading skills including new vocabulary through consistent approaches to reading for pleasure, phonics, shared reading, whole class reading, independent reading, reading for knowledge and research, evaluating etc.
We also want our parents to be involved and engaged with their children’s learning. This is done in a variety of ways including homework, workshops/information evenings, guides, electronic information.
English Curriculum Impact
At St Bede’s Primary Primary School, we constantly monitor the progress each child makes so that we can provide a curriculum that moves their learning forward. We use the Lancashire Klips document to plan and assess children’s reading and writing.
We ensure that each child is seen as an individual and can: