At St. James’ Primary School, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. Our English curriculum is written with consideration of our vision, mission (RACE: Respect, Aspiration, Community, Enquiring minds) and values statement as well as the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the National Curriculum. Through the English curriculum, we will help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We want children to enjoy and appreciate literature and its rich variety.
English is at the heart of all children’s learning. English enables children both to communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning. Because English is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development it has an essential role across the curriculum and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive.
We aim for our pupils to:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- Foster an interest in words and their meanings, and to develop a growing vocabulary in both spoken and written form
- Be able to write in a variety of styles and forms showing awareness of audience and purpose
- Have a good understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- Be effective, competent communicators, able to speak clearly in formal presentation
- Listen to the ideas of others and use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
- Produce effective, well-presented written work.
Phonics
We use Read Write Inc Phonics in reception, year 1 and year 2.
Please see the links below for ways to help your child with their reading at home. Your child's home reading book will guide you to the correct set to practise. Please ask you child's teacher if you're not sure.
Reading schemes
Once children have successfully completed the Read, Write Inc phonics scheme they have all the skills they need to read all sorts of different books. We choose reading books from a range of schemes like those below to provide structure, progression and variety to meet the interests and needs of our children.
Click here for your handy book band list.
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| Rigby Rocket/Star/Quest | Pocket Books: Tales/Sci-fi/Facts (Ginn) | Lighthouse (Ginn) |
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| Oxford Reading Tree | Collins Big Cat | Engage Literacy |
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Pelican Guided Reading and Writing |
Rigby Navigator | Whole texts |
Has anyone caught you reading today?
Children make great progress with the mechanics of learning to read through our phonics and reading scheme books. We also want to encourage children to read widely to follow new interests, develop general knowledge and - crucially - to ENJOY reading for pleasure. To that end, each class has a reading area and we have three school libraries (FSU, KS1 and KS2). Children in early years are encouraged to bring their parents and carers into school to help them chose a book to share at home each week. With Miss Parnell's help, our school librarians (from the Department of Education pupil leadership team), take responsibility for opening the KS1 and 2 libraries during lunchtimes so that each class has a weekly library time to choose books to read and share at home.
We've even built our own virtual library! Click here to have a look.
We like lots of different authors and every class has an 'Author of the Year'.
Click on their name to find out more about them.
Class 1 Julia Donaldson
Class 2 Mini Grey
Class 3 Malorie Blackman
Class 4 Roald Dahl
Class 5 Michael Morpurgo
Class 6 Onjali Q Rauf
