A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints….

Pope Benedict XVI, 2010

Our Approach to English

Our Intent

At Holy Family, English is at the core of all our other subjects. We wish to develop in our children a love of language, both written and spoken, that will go with them into adulthood. We believe a high standard of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills will support our children across the entire curriculum. By developing their speaking and listening skills, we will enable them to express themselves clearly and to communicate effectively with the world around them.

Our Implementation

At Holy Family, we endeavour to:

• Every child’s voice matters to us. Therefore, we aim to create a safe caring environment in which all children feel encouraged to speak and listen.
• Give children access to a wide variety of stimulating literary texts.
• Hear children read on a regular basis and send reading books home with a reading record for dialogue between school and home.
• Provide children with the opportunity to produce a range of written work developing skills across a variety of genres, e.g. – narrative, information and poetry.
• Provide children with a structured programme of phonics, based on the guidelines of Little Wandle to develop their knowledge of phonics for reading and spelling.
• Encourage accurate spelling and correct grammar.
• Encourage children to develop a clear and legible handwriting style.
• Maintain records of pupil achievement to assess their progress and build upon success.

Reading

Holy Family has a whole school commitment to the development of reading. We maintain a love of reading and a passion for the development of skills throughout our school so children become fluent and excited readers in preparation for their transition into secondary education.

It is our priority to ensure that each child is taught to read. Phonics is the way that our children start their journey to become independent and fluent readers. From the moment the children join us in Reception, phonics is taught in a highly structured programme of daily lessons which continues throughout Reception and Year 1 using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. Staff have benefited from high-quality training and, as a result, they are highly skilled in delivering this extremely effective programme that systematically builds upon what pupils already know. Pupils do not move on through the programme until they have successfully embedded their learning, and we use the Little Wandle Rapid Catch up intervention to help the children who might need further support. To support their progress in early reading, we use decodable books as a way of establishing phonic decoding.

Once pupils have successfully completed the phonics programme, developing their comprehension skills becomes the primary focus in teaching reading. The skills and knowledge pupils need in order to comprehend are very similar at different ages. Therefore, we use a whole class, mastery approach to teaching reading throughout KS2.

Promoting a love of reading

We encourage reading for enjoyment and we have a well-stocked library. We support whole school reading approaches by reading to the children every day and encouraging reading at home. Reading and vocabulary are taught in a purposeful way and children are confident presenting their work and using different types of texts to achieve their goals. Teachers have a wide knowledge of appropriate children’s literature and are reflective practitioners who can talk confidently about books and use this creativity in our own work.

Writing

Our children need to develop a passion and skill for writing in which they feel comfortable experimenting with different styles and formats. From the Foundation Stage, all children’s attempts at writing, including emergent writing, are valued and built upon, so that children appreciate the importance of their writing in conveying meaning to the reader. During Key Stage 2 pupils learn to write more independently and alter the way they write to suit different situations, purposes and audiences.

The programmes of study for writing across KS1 and KS2 are constructed around the principles of transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

Writing is embedded across our curriculum. We endeavour to use exciting, high quality core texts to engage our children in their studies. When possible, we strive to ensure these core texts are linked to our Topics to enhance the children’s learning and to help encourage them to use rich language and tier 3 vocabulary. Additionally, texts are carefully chosen to try to reflect a rich array of cultures, backgrounds and experiences. Exposure to these high-quality texts and linking tasks to their topics enables children to discover a real sense of purpose for writing.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)

At Holy Family, there is a strong focus on vocabulary development, grammar, punctuation and spelling. SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) is taught both discretely and as an embedded part of English lessons. This focus helps prepare children for end of key stage assessments and to ultimately develop greater fluency in writing.

Learning how to spell is a useful lifelong skill. Correct spelling makes a child's work easier to read and understand, and children themselves take pride in being able to spell words accurately. If children are confident in their ability to spell, they are more likely to use more ambitious vocabulary in their writing rather than avoiding less familiar words simply because they are unable to spell them.

National Curriculum - English: Spelling for KS1 and KS2

Handwriting

We are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive / joined up handwriting style. From Year 3, pupils are taught how to produce fluent, legible and joined handwriting. To support this, handwriting is taught explicitly and is revisited weekly throughout their entire journey through Holy Family.

Spoken Language

Oral language has a key role in the classroom. We believe that every voice matters and therefore, every child should have the confidence and skills to be able to share their ideas with the school community.

In our school the key areas are:

• Speaking; being able to speak clearly and to develop and sustain ideas in talk.
• Listening: developing active listening strategies and critical skills of analysis
• Group discussion and interaction: taking different roles in groups, making a range of contributions and working collaboratively

Talk is an underlying factor in the development of literacy, with children engaging by responding to text, explaining their choices and rehearsing their ideas in advance of writing. This approach is used across the entire curriculum through the use of talk partners and class discussions.

Our Impact

• All pupils learn to read confidently with accuracy and fluency so that they are able to access all areas of the curriculum.
• Pupils develop a love of reading.
• All pupils are able to recall and discuss the subjects they are learning and explain what they remember from lessons they have participated in.
• Pupils can articulate the intended learning and say what they need to do to achieve it, demonstrating excellent attitudes to learning and self discipline
• Pupils enjoy learning and are confident communicators who develop a wide vocabulary.
• Quality first teaching and assessment for learning is effective.