English
We subscribe to the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education to ensure we always use high quality texts to inspire writing. The English subject overviews are below. They cover reading, writing and grammar. We have a two year cycle that each class follows from Year 1-5.
Reading
At St Michael's we aim to enable all its learners to develop confident word reading and comprehension. We want our readers to read easily, fluently and with good understanding. To develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information and acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
In order to do this we teach the National Curriculum Programme of study which consists of two dimensions
- Word reading, including phonics for the early teaching of reading
- Comprehension skills (both listening and reading)
We use the Little Wandle Phonics scheme in Reception and Year 1 and 2. We have bought in Little Wandle Catch Up materials for children aged 7+. Reading is the gateway to life long learning so we aim to ensure all children leave St Michael's as confident and fluent readers. Children are assessed regularly so gaps in knowledge are identified and closed.
Whole Class Reading
In Years 3-6 learners participate in whole class reading. This takes place three times a week. Teaching is based around high quality texts and we have a folder of texts and excerpts to develop vocaularly and inference skills
As well as this work taking place three times a week learners have a class novel in each class that is read regularly.
Writing
We base all writing on high quality texts. Our planning is based on resources and text suggestions from the Centre of Literacy and Primary Education (CLPE). Over the course of a week of teaching learners develop a range of skills which are then applied to extended pieces of writing. We use the four purposes of writing which build up knowledge of a variety of writing forms as learners progress through the school.
Colourful semantics - as a support for the development of writing
Colourful sematics is a therapy approach created by Alison Bryan. that is used to support expressive language.
The approach aims to improve the length and structure of sentences using colour coding. It is usually recommended by Speech and Language Therapists for individual children. The approach has four key colour coded stages to show the ‘structure’ of a sentence.
Presentation Policy
Handwriting
We use the Kinetic letters handwriting resources