St Paul’s (Slade Green) C of E Primary School

English Intent

At St. Paul’s (Slade Green) Church of England Primary School, the study and mastery of English is essential to all we do.  Appropriate skills and knowledge in English are key to all learning and it is through speaking, listening, reading and writing that children are empowered to interpret the world around them. Through our curriculum at St. Paul’s, children are enabled to express themselves creatively and imaginatively whether they are immersed in reading; composing written texts or engaging in meaningful conversation and expanding their vocabulary.

English is taught through carefully-selected learning quests which lend themselves to the children's interests and next steps. Care is taken to ensure that the context for learning is both stimulating and challenging enough to broaden our pupils’ experiences of language and text, while familiar enough to develop confidence. All elements of English, from early phonics to more complex grammar skills, are carefully planned for progression and interwoven through these learning quests.

Our curriculum prioritises early reading and allows children to develop and use adventurous, sophisticated vocabulary in both speech and written work. Children are encouraged to take risks with their language - using new vocabulary, techniques and structures.  The children at our school become readers through their exposure to rich and varied texts. Their passion is nurtured through opportunities to share books with their peers and with adults. Teachers at St. Paul’s foster a love of language and literature, whilst maximising the individual potential of each pupil. Our aim is for St. Paul’s children to leave our school as fluent, adept and motivated readers and writers who are learners for life.

Curriculum Strategies

Phonics

There are so many things you can do to help support your child’s phonics learning at home. Here are a few ideas:

1. Talk, talk, talk

As a parent, you are the model of good speaking and listening. Regularly introduce new words. For example, for the word big you could also introduce large, huge, or enormous.

2. Read to and with your child

This models good reading skills and promotes reading enjoyment. Re-read these so that over time your child builds up their stock of stories and texts they know well.

3. Sing

Teach nursery rhymes and songs and make lots of opportunities to sing and recite them. These are some of our favourites: 

4. Pronounce words and sounds clearly

5. Rhyming games and activities

These kinds of games are fun to do and will support your child in hearing speech sounds that are the same and that are different. 

These links will take you to interactive, online rhyming games:

6. Play phonics games

Play simple phonics word games based on the sounds your child is learning and has learned at school. 

Click on the links to play some fun and educational phonics games online: 

Phonics in EYFS

If your child is in reception, they will begin by learning set one sounds. These videos show you the sounds they are learning. Practising these at home will help your child embed their learning. 

At St. Paul's, we read a wide range of rich and exciting texts! Here is a selection of a few of our favourite texts we are studying this year:

Our Amazing Reading Areas!

Reading At Home

• Try to listen to and read with your child regularly, 10 minutes a day is better than a longer session once a week.  It can help if a regular time is set aside so that it becomes part of a routine. 
• Find a quiet place to share books where you can feel comfortable and relaxed – learning to read needs to be a positive experience - build their confidence by praising their efforts.
• Encourage your child to have a go at reading words, by using phonic skills to read any unfamiliar words and by working on building up their sight vocabulary.
• Talk about the meanings of words to help to develop your child’s understanding and use of language. 
• Encourage your child to read a range of texts such as stories, newspapers, comics, labels, poetry, non-fiction, tickets, signs, leaflets etc.
• Read books to your child as well; if they see you enjoying a book it will encourage and motivate them to want to learn to read.
• Ask them questions about the text to develop their understanding. 

Recommended Books