Curriculum Intent

At St. Thomas’s Centre, we intend to deliver an outstanding English curriculum where everyone of our learners are engaged and enthusiastic about English. We achieve this by making sure our children are taught in a language rich environment, where they speak clearly and with confidence, conveying their views and ideas fluently using an ever-growing vocabulary. An emphasis on the teaching of vocabulary and developing oracy skills places speaking and listening at the heart of our English curriculum with the teachers as a clear role model for all children. The National Curriculum for each year group is closely followed through a ‘unit of writing’ based approach, each year building on prior learning and further development of English knowledge and skills.

We want our children to become confident, articulate, creative writers. Because of this, we aim to expose our children to an appropriate range of vocabulary and genres to instill a deep appreciation of English literature. Taking inspiration from a wide variety of texts, we also want our children to gain a deep understanding of how the English language works and how sentences are constructed, underpinned by a thorough knowledge of English grammar.

We develop writing skills, including grammar, punctuation and spelling knowledge, so that our children have the skills, knowledge and stamina to write, in a range of genres and for different purposes, at an age appropriate standard. The teaching of writing is systematic, consistently built on prior learning and incorporating shared, modelled, guided, peer edited and independent writing.

At St Thomas’s Centre we follow the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Key Stage One and Two. It states:

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. It places importance on all the skills of language, which are essential to participating fully as a member of society.

Handwriting, spelling and grammar and punctuation lessons are taught discreetly and then applied through independent writing, both in English lessons and across the curriculum.

Key Stage 1 overview

During Key Stage 1 our pupils will be taught to compose individual sentences orally and then write them down. They will be encouraged to make phonically plausible attempts to spell words they have not yet learnt. Pupils will be supported so they can attempt to form individual letters correctly, so establishing good handwriting habits from the beginning.

Pupils begin to meet extra challenges in terms of spelling during Key Stage 1 so they are taught there is not always an obvious connection between the way a word is said and the way it is spelt. Variations include different ways of spelling the same sound, the use of so-called silent letters and groups of letters in some words and, sometimes, spelling that has become separated from the way that words are now pronounced, such as the ‘le’ ending in table. Pupils’ motor skills are also supported as they need to be sufficiently advanced for them to write down ideas that they may be able to compose orally.

Key Stage 2 overview

We have designed an English curriculum that reflects the needs of our children and in Key Stage 2 pupils will be taught understand, through being shown, the skills and processes essential for writing: that is, thinking aloud to generate ideas, drafting, and re-reading to check that the meaning is clear. Our pupils will be encouraged to write down their ideas quickly.

Throughout Key Stage 2, teachers should continue to emphasise pupils’ enjoyment and understanding of language, especially vocabulary, to support their reading and writing as well as continuing to add to their knowledge of linguistic terms, including those to describe grammar, so that they can discuss their writing and reading.