English
At St Mary's Catholic Primary School, we provide a rich and ambitious English curriculum that nurtures confident, articulate communicators and lifelong readers. Our curriculum prioritises accurate and fluent word reading, spelling, handwriting and mathematics, and is designed to extend pupils' language and vocabulary, both spoken and written, whilst increasing their reading competency across all subjects. All pupils are explicitly taught how to communicate effectively through spoken language (oracy), articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through speaking, listening and communication.
Our teaching of reading is rigorous and sequenced, and develops pupils' fluency, confidence and enjoyment. We have established a strong culture of reading embedded across the school, shown by pupils' confidence in and enjoyment of reading, which sets them up to be lifelong readers. Through high-quality systematic synthetic phonics teaching, we ensure every child develops the foundational skills they need to access the wider curriculum and achieve success in their future learning.
Our writing curriculum is carefully structured to align with the DfE's Writing Framework (2025), ensuring pupils develop compositional skills alongside technical accuracy in spelling and handwriting. The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced so that pupils build knowledge and skills sequentially and cumulatively. Teachers present information clearly, promote appropriate discussion, check pupils' understanding systematically, identify misunderstandings and adapt teaching as necessary to correct these.
Our approach to the curriculum and teaching draws explicitly on the best available evidence, including high-quality research relating to supporting disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being. We ensure all children, including these groups, make strong progress through carefully targeted support and high expectations for all.
