English

At St. Joseph’s we intend to deliver an exciting, innovative, high-quality English curriculum which enables and empowers our pupils to reach their full potential, developing a coherent knowledge and understanding of all aspects of English.

We aim to inspire pupils’ imaginations, creativity, and foster a desire to learn to read and write. We strive to encourage children to ask perceptive questions, think creatively, record ideas, develop preferences and become fluent in reading and writing.

Our English curriculum helps pupils to understand the complexity of the English language and the classics of English Literature.

Writing is taught through a process called Talk4writing which comprises of three stages: imitation, innovation and invention. A range of exciting stimuli which includes books, film clips, artefacts, visitors and real life experiences are planned around a model text. We endeavour to equip children with a rich vocabulary which can help them bring their writing to life.

Basic skills and non-negotiables underpin writing in all areas of the curriculum. Teachers model the writing process and demonstrate the ambitious high standards expected of all. Every child is encouraged to let their imagination and personality shine through in their writing.

Reading is a fundamental part of everything we do at St Joseph’s. Phonics is taught through a structured programme (RWI) where children learn the sounds letters make and how to blend these sounds to read words. Staff are dedicated in their approach to phonics and aim for all children to become fluent readers.

Children are exposed to high quality texts across the curriculum and reading skills, taken from the National Curriculum, are taught explicitly in all year groups through 'VIPERS' (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising).

Alongside the skills of decoding and comprehension, book talk encourages children to think as a reader, discuss their preferences, questions they may have about the text and make links to other texts they have read.

The high profile of reading in school is further enhanced by the Reading Plus  programme which pupils access daily.  This is a web- based reading platform accessible to the pupils both at home and school.  This encourages further reading and enables parents to support pupils’ reading at home. To engage parents further in pupils reading, we have invested in an online reading journal which can be accessed by pupils, parents and staff.

Reading for pleasure is a cornerstone of our approach; staff read daily to pupils from texts chosen by the teacher or the pupils. Class libraries contain a selection of good quality texts – both fiction and non fiction as well as other reading materials (such as newspapers and magazines) in Keystage 2.

All children at St. Joseph’s receive a broad and balanced curriculum which is updated and reviewed frequently. Every child, regardless of year group or ability, accesses all subjects on offer and English is developed throughout the curriculum.

Children work both independently and as part of a group, ensuring skills of resilience and teamwork are promoted in English. Children are enthused and engaged in the wide variety of books and stimuli they are exposed to in English.

Class trips, visitors and links within our local environment ensure our children understand the significance within the wider world; we ensure that these experiences excite and inspire children’s thirst for knowledge.

Reading at St Joseph’s

Learning to read is one of the most important things your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible. We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.

Writing at St Joseph's

At St Joseph’s we teach writing through a curriculum called, ‘Talk for Writing’. This approach allows our children to imitate the language, patterns and structures of texts before they move on to reading, analysing and finally writing their own version independently.

It is our intention that children at St Joseph’s become confident writers and this comes alongside being able to speak their chosen words confidently. Talk 4 Writing is split in to three stages: Imitation, innovation and independent invention.

Imitation Stage:

A typical Talk-for-Writing unit begins with an exciting hook into learning and some engaging activities to help children internalise the pattern of the language required. The focus is on children learning the chosen text and being able to retell it by the end of the stage.

A story map (created by the teacher) is accompanied by physical movements to help the children recall the story or non-fiction piece supports the oral retelling visually. In this way the children hear the text, say it for themselves and enjoy it before seeing it written down.

Once they have internalised the language of the text, they are in a position to read the text and start to think about the key ingredients that help to make it work. This stage includes a range of reading as-a-reader and as-a-writer activities which help the children to pull the text apart and explore the content and structure.

A boxing-up technique (splitting the text into sections) is then used and to help the children to analyse the features that have helped to make the text work. Once the boxing up is complete, the class starts to co-construct a toolkit for this type of text so that they can talk about the ingredients themselves – a key stage in internalising the toolkit in their heads.

Innovation Stage:

The second stage is an exciting one for the children as they begin to explore their own ideas while sharing with the teacher. Once the children have internalised the text, they are then ready to start innovating on the pattern of the text. Younger children and less confident writers alter their text maps and orally rehearse what they want to say, creating their own version. The key focus in this stage is shared writing with the teacher that then helps the children to move away slightly from the teacher and write their own. It’s during this time that the teacher will identify specific areas for learning and give the children the opportunity to explore different skills before they are expected to do it independently. The teacher will also explore and model how to accurately use ambitious vocabulary and sentence structures that the children can then apply to their own writing. Demonstrating how to regularly read their work aloud to see if it works is important here. This process enables the children to write their own versions through developing their ability to generate good words and phrases and also develops the inner judge when they start to decide why one word or phrase is best. Good ideas and examples will be hung on the washing line alongside the shared writing so when the children come to write they have models and words and phrases to support them. Throughout the shared writing, the children will be strengthening the toolkit so they start to understand the type of ingredients that may help. Once they have finished their own paragraph/s children should be encouraged to swap their work with a response partner. Then either with the aid of a visualizer or from peer/teacher feedback, the whole class can also discuss some of the more successful work and identify what made it successful. Time will be given at the end of each writing session for the teacher to provide feedback for the children to read and improve on the following day.

Independent Invention Stage:

In the final stage of the unit, children are able to develop their own ideas into a finished piece. Teachers will assess what the children are able to do and adapt their planning to suit these areas.

This stage will begin with the teaching of an area that the teacher has identified as needing further work prior to the children writing their own piece. More examples of the text are introduced, analysed and compared before the children can have a go themselves on a related topic of their own choosing. The teachers will work with the children to set targets which focus on aspects that they need to focus on.

At the end of the stage, children will share their work with response partners and class discussions around which features they have included.  Editing and improving are a large part of the National Curriculum and children will be given this time to edit their writing.  This process also helps the children internalise the toolkit so this becomes a practical, flexible toolkit in the internal memory rather than a list to be looked at and blindly followed.

Handwriting

Letter-join is a whole school handwriting scheme. The resources we use include classroom presentations, handwriting activities, online games and worksheets to keep trying to perfect letter formation!  We also use handwriting lines in all our books to ensure children can form all letters accurately.