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Welcome to Sacred Heart Primary School

with children at its heart

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English

English Curriculum Intent

English is the foundation of learning and has a pre-eminent standing in education (DfE, 2013). At Sacred Heart we aim to ensure all children speak, read and write fluently so they can become courageous, resilient and world-class communicators. As a starting point, reading underpins the essence of our curriculum, including the development of language and the love of reading. Reading for pleasure is at the heart the Sacred Heart experience and is not seen as an ‘add on’ to the curriculum: it is timetabled, protected and involves both adults and children in cultivating a strong reading culture in our school. We recognise the importance that reading can have in transforming the outcomes of our children, regardless of their socio-economic background (OECD, 2021).

 

We prioritise the teaching of the key skill of automatic word recognition to ensure fluent reading as this is the basis of all learning. Through a text-rich and language focussed curriculum, children will explore a range of authors and genres which will not only enable them to think more deeply about their own experiences but also take them beyond their own understanding of the world to develop empathy, character and to communicate the experiences of others. We organise the books we choose around our chosen themes and values we wish to instil in our children.

 

Our Reading Themes

Courage and Resilience

Diversity, Inclusion and Displacement

Traditional Tales

Environment

Identity

Relationships

 

We empower our children to wield writing as a dynamic instrument for creativity and self-expression. Achieving this goal involves anchoring the purpose of writing in captivating experiences, exemplary modelling, and regular practice sessions that nurture fluency and bolster confidence. Fluency in transcription is prioritised for our children to develop confidence in writing and to free up working memory for creative ideas and expression (Education Endowment Fund, 2020). Through exploration of high-quality texts, language and sentence structures, we equip our children with the essential tools to cultivate the endurance and resilience needed for planning, drafting, editing, and publishing of their own written compositions. This approach not only instils a profound understanding of the writing craft but also fosters the development of independent, confident and proficient writers.

Implementation - Organising the Curriculum 

Document

Purpose and Rationale

Progression Map

  • To breakdown knowledge and skills into broad end points based on defined domains of knowledge
  • To show progression and clarity of the teaching of English across our school
  • To allow teachers to plan based on prior knowledge
  • To allow teachers to be more flexible in the knowledge and skills they teach by using the document to ‘track back’ and reteach previous knowledge and skills that are not yet sufficiently developed
  • To identify key skills and knowledge that all pupils need to know to become successful as they progress through their education

Reading Spine

  • To organise texts around our core themes and values
  • To provide teachers with the high-quality texts they will plan from and share with their class
  • To allow teachers to be more aware of texts their pupils will have read previously to make links and connections to previous reading

Poetry Map

  • To ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to study different poetry forms and themes
  • To ensure that all pupils are able to build an awareness and appreciation of a wide range of poets
  • To provide teachers with suggested poems to share and teach

Kinetic Letters Long-Term Plan

  • To ensure adequate coverage of the four main principles of Kinetic Letters
  • To logically sequence the teaching and introduction of letters and letter families
  • To ensure repeated reteaching and retrieval of letters and letter families in an adequate and coherent manner
  • To ensure joining of letters takes place at a logical point within the curriculum

Long-Term Plans

  • To provide clarity of what skills and knowledge need to be taught within a year group
  • To secure logical sequencing of knowledge and skills and ensure that key skills and knowledge are repeated

Medium-Term Plans

  • To breakdown and sequence knowledge into granular steps to ensure mastery of key skills
  • To reflect the needs and capabilities of the teacher’s current cohort (e.g. scaffolding)
  • To identify key vocabulary and concepts to be taught
  • To build retrieval into the curriculum

 

 

English Progression of Skills - KS1 to KS2

Bibliography and Reading:

OECD (2021), 21st-Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World, PISA.
Department for Education (2023), The Reading Framework.
Ofsted (2024), Telling the Story: The English Education Subject Report.
Centre for Literacy in Primary Education – CLPE (2015), Reading for Pleasure – What We Know Works Such, C. (2021), The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading. SAGE Publications Ltd.

Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986), The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(2), 127–160 Education Endowment Fund, (2021), Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2.
Department for Education (2013), English Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2, National Curriculum in England.
Standards and Testing Agency (2024), Guidance – Key Stage 2 Teacher Assessment Guidance 2024

Scarborough, H. S. (2001), Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97–110). New York, NY: Guilford Press

Tennent, W., Reedy, D., Hobsbaum, A., & Gamble, N. (Eds.). (2016), Guiding Readers - Layers of Meaning: A Handbook for Teaching Reading Comprehension to 7-

11-Year-Olds. UCL IOE Press.

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