St. Augustine’s

English

At St. Augustine's, our English curriculum is not only taught as a specific subject but also permeates through all other subjects to ensure our children  are using and applying skills across a wide range of subjects.  We ensure a high-quality education in English so our children will leave us 'secondary ready' with skills that allow them to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. 

Reading and Writing

We are very passionate about reading at St Augustines. We seek to ensure our children grow to have a love of books and literature and encourage skills to allow pupils to acquire their own knowledge and lead their own learning. Classrooms are equipped with class libraries to excite and promote self selection by providing a range of genres and text types. Classes also celebrate class authors to inspire the next generation of authors!  Families are actively encouraged to share in our love of reading and are invited to our weekly visits to the local library.

The National Curriculum has some overarching aims for English to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. In line with the National Curriculum, St Augustine's aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. 
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Below you will find the whole-school English Long Term Plan, where speaking, reading and writing objectives  are systematically mapped. You will also find our  Speaking Awards, Class Authors,  Narrative Map and class Poetry Spine on this plan . All of which aim to expose our children to literature from across the globe whilst spanning the centuries. Children purposefully explore a glorious array of genres written by a diverse range of authors to find representation in the curriculum. 

Phonics

As soon as pupils begin their learning journey in the Early Years they are immersed in language, song and literature. Daily nursery rhymes, traditional songs and daily stories all enable our children to make the first steps to becoming readers. Children in the Early Years and Lower Key Stage 1 follow the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised'  programme as their synthetic phonics daily lesson. This takes pupils, in a stepped and measurable way, through the elements required to form the foundations of a fluent reader. Beginning with Foundations for Phonics in our Nursery setting where pupils are taught to truly listen to sounds, the program layers learning following a cycle of Review-Teach-Practise-Apply.

At every stage, pupils are encouraged to apply their learning outside of the Phonic session and embed the sounds and associated spellings. Children (and families!) quickly become used to words such as phoneme, grapheme, blend and digraph, as they begin the wonderful journey of associating sounds to letters, which all translates to a love of reading! Sight words/ Common Exception Words also play a part in ensuring our pupils are secure readers and ready for their statutory Phonic assessment in the Summer Term of Year 1. 

 In Year 2, daily phonics sessions continue for all children who have not achieved the expected level in Year 1. Pupils who require additional support will be supported beyond this transistion, take part in a specialist catch up programme to ensure all of our children become readers and can flourish. 

Please follow this link for more information and 'how to' videos to support phonics.  https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ 

Spelling  

 Spellings are taught in line with the National Curriculum statutory requirements using the Rising Stars Program of study.  Spelling rules, patterns and the exceptions are all taught systematically  from Year 2 upward . Pupils are given no more than 10 spellings (or graphemes) to learn as homework and these skills are woven into daily lessons. (Year 1 children have spellings linked to their phonics).

Grammar and Punctuation  

Grammar retrieval is used to begin every English lesson. Grammar and punctuation skills, in line with the National Curriculum,  are taught daily linked to the genre and text type children are currently studying in English lessons. Children are expected to apply this knowledge in their own writing and write across the curriculum transferring these skills. 

Handwriting

At St Augustine’s, all pupils are encouraged to take pride in their workbooks through good presentation.  All children are taught how to form neat, legible and fluent handwriting. Letter formation is taught to the Early Years and Year 1 as part of the structured phonics sessions and during English lessons. When appropriate in Year 2, children then progress to a joined cursive script using the ‘Teach Handwriting’ scheme to support teaching and procedures. 

Teach Handwriting 

Reading at Home

A range of reading activities are utilised to support our families with reading. Children are expected to read their reading book at least 3x a week at home. For Key Stage 2 pupils, Accelerated Reader is used, so that children can self-select their book which has been correctly matched to their development using the platform. Pupils in Key Stage 1 and Early Years also take home a class library book to complement their phonics based fluency book so that they too can develop reading for pleasure habits. Story Sacks are also given to Early Years families on a weekly basis. Every child at St Augustine's is issued with a library card for our local library and visits are planned each six weeks to return and choose library books for each class!

Careers in the Curriculum 

We want all of our pupils to feel inspired about the future that they could have and the pathways that can lead them there. Harnessing their interest areas and talents, we remain focused on 'Careers in the Curriculum' and continue to reach out to partners and organisations who can support us in our mission to inspire the next generation of authors, editors, journalists, broadcasters, copy writers, librarians, screen writers, vloggers, producers, speech therapists and not forgetting teachers!