English Subject Intent

Reading

It is our intent that children will read widely and often at home and school for pleasure, for information and to expand and enhance their knowledge and understanding across all subjects. They are immersed in a reading curriculum that is rich and varied. Teachers model expert reading and use quality texts for children to interrogate. Through captivating imaginations, it is our aim that our children are motivated to apply progressively advanced skills that are transferrable to the digital and global world. Our children not only learn to read, but they also read to learn: reading is at the heart of our curriculum.

At the St Mary's Bluecoat Primary, the curriculum has been designed with reading at its core and it is woven across all curriculum areas. We share and promote a love of reading for all pupils as we recognise that learning to read raises children’s self-esteem and develops the wider characteristics of effective learning. We want our children to know that reading can make a difference throughout their whole lives.

Throughout our school environment, reading is celebrated, the importance of reading can be evidenced across the curriculum through numerous books to promote a positive reading mind-set. Well stocked and thought-out library areas in each class provide all pupils and staff to read and experience a range of text/media types and genres including newspapers, maps, children’s classics and poetry. Within each school day, pupils are encouraged to choose texts to read for pleasure, this fosters a love of reading through choice and variation. 

Word reading - Phonics 

We aim to provide high quality phonic work, so that children have the knowledge, skills and understanding to apply the process to both spoken and recorded language. We recognise that word recognition skills are crucial in enabling children to read fluently, freeing them up to concentrate on the meaning of the text. Success for All Phonics is a DFE validated scheme taking a systematic approach, which is designed to help staff teach children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. This time limited programme of phonics work is aimed at securing fluent word recognition skills for reading by the end of KS1 and as an intervention in KS2. Phonics is taught so that the children receive stage-appropriate provision. 

You can read more about our phonics programme by clicking on the star below!

Writing

It is our intention that children are inspired by high-quality literature and a range of stimuli, which makes readers engage with and enjoy writing. Writing for a variety of purposes and audiences, the children apply progressively more complex skills to communicate ideas fluently and with interesting detail in a range of genres. Vocabulary is also taught through demonstration writing and modelled explicitly through talk; therefore, the children will have a highly developed repertoire of words which extend detail and description in their writing. Writing in our school is well-organised and structured, with teachers making effective use of a genre guide to ensure children have opportunities to write for a wide range of purposes. Throughout the writing process, our children will edit and redraft their work, responding to feedback from teachers and peers.