At St Anthony's we want all of our pupils to be capable readers, writers, spellers and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education.

Our English lessons develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. Writing is often taught in a cross curricular way, linking up with other areas of the curriculum such as Science, History and Geography. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions as we know the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum constantly.

Children in EYFS and Key Stage One have daily phonics lessons, with interventions continuing into Key Stage Two as required. Daily guided reading lessons across school teach the children the skills of reading with understanding and developing their ability to retrieve information. We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. At the end of each year, we expect the children to have achieved Age Related Expectations (ARE) for their year group. Some children will have progressed further and achieved greater depth (GD). Children who have gaps in their knowledge receive appropriate support and intervention.

Each year group have a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been planned to ensure correct coverage of the key genres as well as build on skills from year to year. Units will vary in length, and the outcome of each unit will be an ARE piece. Extended Writing units will be used to assess the pupil’s skills against the agreed National Curriculum expectations.

Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand-alone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

As a school where we all strive to be our best, we believe that all learning should be adapted to the needs of all children (SEN, EAL, more able, disadvantaged) and that the curriculum should be carefully planned to take account of everyone in the class so that we can all ‘Do something beautiful for God, each and every day'.  To support all children in moving towards independent writing and doing their best we provide a wide range of activities including but not limited to the use of film and imagery, music, ICT, modelled, shared and guided writing, peer assessment and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and seen by an audience.

We have developed a range of extra activities which are used to promote English within the school including Writing Challenges, class ‘Star Writers’ awards as well as World Book Day, Roald Dahl Day and National Poetry Day to name a few.

Impact

•      Children talk enthusiastically about reading and writing and understand their importance and their relationship.

•      Pupils enjoy reading for information and enjoyment, and discuss books with excitement and interest.

•      Pupils are able to retrieve information from books and texts and use inference and prediction when reading.

•      Pupils develop a good understanding of vocabulary, which they can then use in their own writing.

•      Pupils will enjoy and be confident in writing across a range of genres (including fiction, non-fiction and poetry), using the appropriate style, structure and features.

•      Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded.

•      They will plan, draft, revise and edit their own work, and learn how to self and peer assess.

•      Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing.

•      Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience.

•      Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.

•      The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.

•      The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.

•      The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)