English Intent

Here at St Mary’s School, we want you to enjoy learning to read and write and discover your own potential. We aim to help you on your Literacy journey, by giving you every opportunity to acquire the skills you need.

We will encourage you to be an active learner through an English curriculum that is interesting, engaging and inspiring. We aim to deliver a selection of purposeful, differentiated learning opportunities and challenges; through drama and ‘hands-on’ activities, visitors and workshops, dressing-up, sharing and doing. We will provide the rich environment you need to develop a love of reading and writing. Every day we will encourage interpersonal skills; help to build resilience, independence and creativity, and inspire critical thinking. We see Literacy learning as a team project at St Mary’s, so your parents will be involved on every level. They will receive support to help further your development; from sharing our high expectations of reading and writing, to hearing you read, AND reading with you and to you!!

We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often.  A wide range of texts in classrooms and the school library will be available to you. In lessons, you will have access a carefully selected range of diverse texts to help widen your experience and model good writing. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where we take pride in our writing, can write clearly and accurately, and adapt language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire you to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and use discussion and drama to communicate and further your learning. You will need to develop a secure technical knowledge-base in English, which will follow a clear pathway of progression as you go through the school. Having a secure foundation in literacy skills is essential for a high-quality education, and will provide the equipment needed to participate fully as a member of society.

To summarise:

a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils;

a curriculum that is coherently planned and sequenced;

a curriculum that is successfully adapted, designed and

developed for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities;

a curriculum that is broad and balanced for all pupils.