English at St Teresa’s
At St Teresa’s, our core aim is to enable every child to read with fluency, understanding and enjoyment and to communicate effectively both orally and in writing for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing a strong understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
We follow the statutory requirements for the teaching and learning of English as set out in The National Curriculum, 2014 and the EYFS Statutory Framework, 2021. We aim for excellence by having a clear learning sequence through a structured approach that starts with a high quality model text leading to a written outcome.
Click here to view our English LTP which has been adapted with exciting changes to promote more diversity and modern themes from Autumn 2023.
READING: We teach systematic phonics as recommended by the DfE. We use the Read Write Inc Scheme for this. All of our early reading and phonics work is solely focused on Read Write Inc to ensure our children can progress quickly – leading to success in early reading, decoding, blending and segmenting skills. Children are encouraged to read for enjoyment through exposure to a wide range of age-appropriate high-quality texts.
During English lessons, children have the opportunity to build their fluency and understanding as readers by reading, deconstructing and engaging with a text to deepen their understanding of the written word. Texts are selected to evoke curiosity, help children identify with who they are, build their vocabulary and cultural capital and to provide a model for their own writing.
Please see our Reading & Phonics Page for a wealth of more information. CLICK HERE
WRITING: Children begin their writing journey in EYFS developing early skills in handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar and composition and an understanding of audience and purpose. These foundations are built upon in KS1 and KS2 through teaching and learning opportunities as part of the journey of English. Children have opportunities to write in a range of genres and for a variety of audiences and purposes. In response to texts they have read, they develop their understanding of grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary and are encouraged to use them both accurately and for effect.
ORACY: Children are given opportunities to rehearse their ideas orally in order to develop clarity and confidence. Through discussions with their peers and teachers they are able to vocalise their thoughts, develop their ideas and to become active listeners who make appropriate responses to others by varying their use of language, tone and register.
Our work on further improving oracy to raise standards in writing is in partnership with Wolverhampton LA Communication and Literacy team. This commenced with Y3, their excellent Superhero writing showed the impact of this on their written descriptions and dialogue. We will be using this strong impact to springboard further projects across school. Watch this space!
In 2024, we were very proud to see that 62% of our Y6 pupils achieved the national expectation for Reading and 69% for Writing. 11% achieved a Greater Depth of Study in Reading and 11% in Writing.