English
Intent
At St Peter’s Primary School, we recognise that English is the foundation of all learning. Our curriculum has been carefully designed to be ambitious, coherently sequenced and knowledge-rich, ensuring that all pupils, regardless of starting point, develop the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
Our curriculum has been deliberately planned by school leaders from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure clear progression in reading, writing and spoken language. High-quality core texts have been selected from Literacy Merit recommendations and are complemented by a carefully curated range of classical and contemporary literature. These texts reflect the diversity of modern Britain, our school community and values, ensuring pupils see both themselves and others represented in what they read. Text choices build vocabulary, background knowledge and cultural understanding over time.
We foster a culture where children take pride in their work, write with clarity and imagination, and adapt their language for a range of audiences and purposes. Equal importance is placed on reading, writing and oracy, ensuring pupils develop as confident communicators.
Our curriculum is supported by high-quality, research-informed programmes including Pathways to Write, Pathways to Read and Pathways to Spell. These provide clear progression models; however, they do not define our curriculum. Teachers exercise professional judgement to adapt content, pacing and outcomes to meet the needs, interests and starting points of our pupils. This ensures our curriculum remains ambitious, inclusive and responsive.
We are committed to securing strong foundations in reading, writing and spelling so that all pupils can access the full curriculum and are fully prepared for the next stage of their education.
Implementation
Reading
Reading is prioritised daily and is central to our curriculum. We are committed to developing confident fluent readers who read widely with understanding and enjoyment.
Through carefully sequenced units supported by Pathways to Read pupils engage with high-quality challenging texts that build fluency vocabulary and deep comprehension. Teachers explicitly model expert reading, including intonation pace and expression, so that pupils develop accuracy automaticity and prosody. Vocabulary is taught deliberately and revisited to ensure it becomes embedded.
In KS2 pupils take part in whole-class reading sessions five times per week. These sessions focus on fluency comprehension and critical thinking. Pupils record thoughtful responses in guided reading books and are taught to justify their ideas using evidence from the text.
In EYFS and KS1 small group shared reading sessions focus on secure decoding blending and early comprehension. Pupils practise reading aloud regularly to build confidence and expression. Fluency is developed through repeated reading modelling and targeted feedback.
Daily story time is prioritised daily across all year groups. Being read to exposes pupils to rich language complex texts and a wide range of authors and genres beyond those they might choose independently.
Reading for pleasure is carefully nurtured. Classrooms contain well-stocked book areas reflecting a diverse range of authors genres and cultures. Our Reading Shed provides an inviting shared reading space and pupils regularly visit the local library. Whole-school events such as Book Week National Poetry Day author studies and reading celebrations further promote a culture where reading is valued and enjoyed.
We track reading attainment closely and provide timely intervention where needed. All pupils are supported and challenged to become fluent thoughtful and enthusiastic readers.
Phonics
Phonics is taught daily using Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds to ensure systematic and consistent early reading instruction.
EYFS: 30 minutes daily
KS1: 45 minutes daily
Rapid catch-up sessions for pupils requiring additional support, including in KS2
Assessment is carried out every five weeks and recorded on our online tracker. This informs immediate intervention and targeted support. Staff receive regular training, coaching and monitoring to ensure high-quality delivery with fidelity, alongside responsive adaptation to pupil need.
Please see our phonics policy for further detail.
Writing
Writing is taught five times per week through carefully sequenced mastery-based units supported by Pathways to Write. Pupils write across a broad range of genres including narrative poetry non-fiction and transactional writing, with clear progression in purpose structure and complexity from EYFS to Year 6.
In Reception strong foundations are prioritised. Children develop secure letter formation phonics knowledge and early sentence construction alongside rich opportunities for talk storytelling and oral rehearsal. Adults model language explicitly and support children to compose sentences verbally before writing. This ensures transcription and composition develop together from the outset.
High-quality core texts provide the stimulus for purposeful outcomes and each unit is enriched with supplementary extracts from classical and contemporary authors. This broadens pupils’ understanding of genre structure and authorial voice enabling them to craft increasingly sophisticated writing.
Our curriculum is mapped progressively and aligned with the National Curriculum and Teacher Assessment Framework. Knowledge and skills are explicitly taught and practised until securely embedded. Pupils focus on mastering key skills such as sentence construction cohesion grammatical control and authorial choice before applying them independently.
Oracy is embedded throughout the writing process. Pupils orally rehearse sentences and paragraphs discuss vocabulary choices and articulate their intentions before writing. This strengthens composition deepens understanding and builds confidence.
Each half term culminates in a ‘Write Away’ task where pupils independently apply the skills taught. Teachers assess whether knowledge and skills have been securely mastered and use this information diagnostically to inform next steps.
Adaptation is responsive and ambitious. All pupils access the same high-quality texts and learning objectives with scaffolds or additional challenge provided to ensure independence sustained precision and high expectations for all.
Across the school pupils follow a consistent process:
Plan → Draft → Edit → Refine
Writing is always purposeful. Pupils understand audience and intent adapt language and structure appropriately and take pride in producing work of a high standard.
Oracy
Oracy is explicitly planned and deliberately developed across the curriculum. In alignment with the Ofsted framework’s emphasis on vocabulary development and communication, we recognise spoken language as foundational to reading and writing success.
Pupils are taught to:
Speak in full sentences using ambitious vocabulary
Articulate ideas clearly and coherently
Justify opinions with evidence
Listen actively and respond thoughtfully
Engage respectfully in structured discussion and debate
Across lessons, teachers model high-quality talk and provide structured opportunities for discussion, partner talk and oral rehearsal. Sentence stems, vocabulary prompts and talk scaffolds support all learners, particularly those with SEND or EAL.
We have developed our whole-school oracy widgets, displayed in planning and agreed actions, to create a consistent approach to talk across the curriculum. These widgets are carefully embedded into lessons so that oracy is a natural part of learning. Children use the widgets as prompts to instigate discussion, build on ideas, challenge ideas, and extend thinking. By incorporating sentence stems and scaffolded language into the widgets, children are supported to articulate their thoughts clearly, ask questions, justify opinions, and respond thoughtfully to others.
Oracy underpins reading comprehension and writing composition. Pupils regularly rehearse sentences aloud before writing, strengthening both transcription and composition. Through performance, storytelling and presentation opportunities, children develop confidence, fluency and clarity as speakers.
Please see our oracy policy for further information.
Handwriting
We follow the Nelson Handwriting Scheme to ensure consistency, fluency and high presentation standards across the school.
Reception: Daily handwriting until letter formation and orientation are secure
KS2: Three handwriting sessions per week
High expectations for presentation apply across all written work.
Please see our Handwriting policy for further information.
Spelling
Spelling is taught through Pathways to Spell, providing a structured, mastery-based progression aligned with National Curriculum expectations.
EYFS & KS1: Spelling builds on secure phonics knowledge
KS2: Pupils develop understanding of spelling rules, morphology and etymology
Teaching is adapted through:
Pre-teaching and overlearning
Targeted group support
Application within extended writing
Regular quizzes to inform next steps
Impact
The impact of our English curriculum is reflected in pupils’ confidence, independence and quality as readers, writers and speakers.
In EYFS, children develop strong foundations through high-quality talk, storytelling and purposeful play. They articulate ideas in full sentences, retell stories and engage in sustained discussion. This spoken language development underpins early writing.
Children build secure transcription skills - letter formation, phonics and spelling - while developing composition through oral rehearsal. By the end of Reception, children can write recognisable letters, spell words phonetically and compose simple sentences that can be read by others.
As pupils move through Key Stages 1 and 2, they:
Speak confidently and participate thoughtfully in discussion
Read fluently, widely and with secure understanding
Write with increasing stamina, creativity and independence
Plan, draft and refine writing with purpose
Apply accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar
Adapt language and structure for audience and purpose
Evaluate and improve their own work
Across the school, books show clear progression in both composition (ideas, organisation, vocabulary and authorial voice) and transcription (handwriting fluency, spelling accuracy and grammatical control).
Strong phonics, reading and writing outcomes reflect the coherence and ambition of our curriculum design. Pupil voice demonstrates that children see themselves as confident readers, writers and communicators.
Leaders evaluate impact through lesson visits, book scrutiny, assessment analysis and professional dialogue. This ensures our curriculum remains ambitious, cohesive and responsive - fully aligned with the expectations of the current Ofsted framework.
Websites for children to use at home
Please click on the links below to practise some fun English activities to support children's learning.
BOOK WEEK 2026!
Book Week 2024!
Chatterbooks
Teachers have been reading, raving and recommending children's books. In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 we have introduced 'Chatterbooks' to the children and each day a child is chosen to take home their class mascot and choose their favourite book. This is then shared and read to the class the next day.
Read, Rave and Recommend
Children in Year 2 and 3 got to meet author Renata Kaminska this week. The children were excited about her book ‘Hector, a Dog’s story’ and is a must for animal and dog lovers. If you are interested in buying her book please click on the link. https://amzn.to/3coDqN7
Reading for Pleasure
We love Books!
