English

Subject Co-ordinator: Miss C Skerry

Purpose of Study

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

Aims

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good 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
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Writing

Writing Skills Progression

Reading

At St Joseph's, we promote and encourage children to develop a love of literature and reading through exposure to a wide range of texts.

Reading 'I can' statements

Reading Schemes

At St. Joseph's we use a variety of different reading schemes. This helps us to provide the children with a wide range of genres, helping us to engage the children in learning to read. Many of the schemes we use are phonics based.
At the moment we use resources from The Ruth Miskin, Read, Write,Inc. scheme, The Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat, Project X, Ginn 360 and the Cambridge Reading scheme.
For further guidance and information on how to help your child read and develop a love of reading please visit the Oxford Owl website. It is full of very useful information.

Click on the Owl below to  visit the website!

St Joseph's Recommended Reading Lists

These lists contain our recommendations for books suitable for each primary phase.

Phonics

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read skillfully. They are taught how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes, identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make – such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’ and blend those sounds together from left to right to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘decode’ new words that they see or hear. This is the first important step to learning to read.

At St Joseph's we use Jolly Phonics to support the teaching of reading and writing - Jolly Phonics provides the children with pictures and actions to support learning of the sound

In phonic sessions children are taught to recognise letters, understand the sound they make and then blend them together to create words. Some words, which cannot be phonetically sounded out, are taught at each phase. These are ‘tricky words’ and are taught through sight recognition.

Please follow the link to out Phonics page for more information and helpful videos. There is also helpful information regarding the Phonics Screening Test.

Please see your class page for further details.