Subject co-ordinators: Mrs Edgell and Miss Maloney

We aim to inspire children to become enthusiastic readers, passionate writers and confident speakers; promoting high standards of language and literacy through an engaging and innovative English curriculum. Our intent is for the pupils of St. Polycarp’s to become confident communicators and active citizens making a positive contribution to society.

Through our wider curriculum we offer a diverse range of language and literacy opportunities. We aim to equip our pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language whilst developing their love of literature through rich and varied texts.

Reading

At St. Polycarp’s, we ensure that all pupils embark upon a reading journey which enables them to develop confidence in all aspects of their reading, by the end of Year 6. 

Our reading journey begins in Early Years with daily systematic synthetic phonics teaching using the Read Write Inc scheme. This continues throughout Key Stage 1 and beyond for those who may benefit from additional support. Children will read phonic books which correspond with the Read Write Inc scheme to support the children in making excellent progress with their reading. 

Once children have developed early literacy skills, they progress onto our Master Reader programme, which focuses on developing comprehension skills whilst continuing to build on reading fluency. Throughout the week, children focus on a range of reading skills, comprising of the following: reading aloud and listening to high-quality core texts, engaging in the explicit teaching of vocabulary, shared discussion of key comprehension skills and taking part in both guided and independent comprehension question practice.  Lessons are planned and delivered to ensure that all children are presented with optimal opportunities to succeed in reading.

Alongside our Master Reader programme, the children will be engaging in our Accelerated Reader programme, which enables them to access a wide range of engaging book choices, genres and authors. This ensures that children make text choices which present a suitable level of challenge, based on their individual ZPD range, therefore promoting accelerated progress whilst fostering a love of reading. 

Reading for pleasure

We encourage reading for pleasure in a variety of ways.  This includes regular visits to our school library where children have access to a wide range of quality texts.  Our inviting book corners provide opportunities for the children to further develop their reading skills and the love of reading.  Daily story time is included in our curriculum and the children enjoy reading with their peers across the year groups. Reading is celebrating through whole school participation in extra-curriculum events such as World Book Week, author visits and the Scholastic book Fair. 

Writing

We teach writing at St. Polycarp’s through studies of high-quality texts linked with our curriculum. Experiences and rich heritage opportunities influence and inspire the pupils’ imaginations for their writing. 

We aim for all pupils to become confident with transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition and to be able to write for a range of purposes and audiences. 

Spelling skills are taught using a high-quality spelling scheme of work; Spelling Shed (Edshed). Spelling is directly taught and embedded into all lessons. 

High standards of pupils’ handwriting begin in Early Years with developing mark making and fine motor skills. This provides the solid foundation to progress onto pre-cursive in Year 2 and then fluent cursive handwriting in Year 3 and beyond.  

Language is promoted with a wide range of rich vocabulary and grammar and opportunities for oracy.  Children will discuss, plan, edit and evaluate their own writing and other texts. 

Introduction to Read Write Inc.