English

English in Saint Margaret Mary’s Catholic Infant School

The National Curriculum is very clear in the expectations and desired outcomes with regard to English.  It is divided between three areas: Spoken Language, Reading and Writing.  Each year group has a yearly plan that highlights the specific skills and objectives that are taught for that year group and there are minimum expectations documents for each phase of learning.

We teach English through the use of high quality texts as a starting point.  These texts provide the stimulus for the development of skills in all three areas of English.  The children will be provided with opportunities for spoken language development through partner work and drama activities, they will be expected to read along with the text and associated texts and they will be provided with a range of writing opportunities to explore narrative, non-fiction and poetry sentence making.  The children will have chance to consolidate and extend their skills through carefully planned progressive targets throughout the year which is matched to each particular class and their needs. 

Reading is given high priority in Saint Margaret Mary’s Catholic Infants and, in partnership with parents, the children are given the opportunity to read a large range of texts.  Reading books are linked to the phonemes (sounds) which the children have already learned in the Phonic Bug lessons. Children usually receive at least two reading books per week and this is further supplemented by online 'Bug Club' learning. 

We have a large range of books in school and are committed to fostering a love of reading.  The text lists that link to English lessons is by no means exhaustive and new texts, linked to the interests of the children, are often used to stimulate learning across the curriculum.  Texts by significant authors and those of new authors are used for enrichment and enjoyment.