The English Curriculum 

at St Robert Bellarmine

“We are God’s work of art”

“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.” Primary National Curriculum 2014

The English curriculum at St Robert Bellarmine Primary School strives to achieve this for all of our children, it aims to ensure that they leave school fluent in the fundamentals of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We encourage all of our children to see that all strands of the English curriculum are an essential part of their everyday life now and in the future.

Our Intended Curriculum

At St Robert Bellarmine, we believe that all aspects of English should be taught with high-quality texts at the heart. The following three principles are embedded in the planning, teaching and assessment of English:

• We really read here at St Robert Bellarmine…
• Writing: how we craft our trade…
• It’s good to talk…

Our school is rich in texts that represent the wealth and variety of children’s literature and staff are skilled in selecting the right book for different outcomes. This knowledge is carefully passed onto children so that they in turn have more ownership about developing their own reading habits. Whole-school texts bring the reading community (pupils, staff and parents) together. This is further enhanced through a holistic approach to ‘reading for pleasure’ where strategies are embedded both implicitly and explicitly. We have recently introduced our Reading Graduate programme at St Robert Bellarmine to develop our love of reading and to help children to access a carefully planned range of quality texts. We also acknowledge the importance reading plays in the development and acquisition of vocabulary. We are determined that we will help ensure our children are exposed to the type of texts which will provide them with the knowledge and cultural capital to overcome barriers to succeed. We have considered the rationale of Mary Myatt when developing our English Curriculum and responded to her recommendations, "If we are serious about an ambitious curriculum for all our pupils, we need to think hard about the resources we provide to make sure that they are really stretching them."

And so we need to turn to texts."

Well-chosen high-quality texts are at the heart of all English sessions to ensure children have models of writing that equip them with skills to succeed. Yearly overviews are consistently reviewed to ensure that all writing tasks are meaningful with a clear audience and purpose. Children make progress across their writing because this is meticulously managed and reviewed. Staff have developed curriculum long-term plans that illustrate soundly how writing skills can be taught in English sessions and further applied in another context. This is expertly woven through the whole curriculum through well-chosen texts and children take great pride to ensure that the standard of writing is consistent in all subjects.

All staff recognise the importance of oral rehearsal before writing and this is evidenced through planning activities across the curriculum where children are given a voice. This ensures children are directly involved in the task and can articulate; justify and explain their learning. Children are encouraged to actively question throughout the curriculum. This is facilitated through well-planned activities where staff promote pupil voice. Children enjoy participating in this way and they develop justification skills at an age-appropriate standard.

Our Enacted Curriculum

We believe that the children here at St Robert Bellarmine deserve a high-quality literary diet that ensures they are inquisitive; risk-takers and confident to articulate their voice. 

Our curriculum design is based upon evidence from cognitive science. Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction are fundamental in the day-to-day teaching of lessons.

Reading:

• All staff have a deep knowledge of texts used; demonstrate and model positive attitudes to reading and can reshape tasks to guide the children as readers. This expertise provides opportunities for children to read beyond their ability and many children master higher order reading skills.
• Early reading is promoted through a range of methods so that our youngest readers are equipped with skills to decode (through consistent phonics sessions) and comprehend (through guided reading sessions where real books are used to promote questioning skills)
• High-quality texts at the heart of learning so that our children have the best models
• The best children’s literature is used to engage readers and inspire writers so that the process of reading into writing is explicitly modelled and children can see a real relationship between both sets of skills
• Aspirational texts used to stimulate challenging discussions to develop justification skills. We embrace texts that stimulate philosophical questions that reflect contemporary issues. Application of reading skills across all curriculum areas to support knowledge-based learning activities. Texts are chosen that genuinely reflect the area studied and can be used as a vehicle to teach new skills.
• We value the importance our parents make in supporting all children to read regularly, fluently and accurately. High-quality home reading books alongside well-known children’s books are used to facilitate this. Progress made in reading is at the heart of many parents’ evening discussions.
• There is a wealth of resources that teachers use including ‘The Better Reading Partnership’ so that children from all abilities are catered for. Some children benefit from 1:1 reading with a skilled adult to further develop their fluency and comprehension skills.
• We recognise that for all of our children to become confident readers and writers, it is essential that they have a secure understanding of the letter sounds and spelling system of the English language.
• We follow the Read Write Inc phonics programme to ensure phonics is taught systematically and consistently throughout school.
• Staff are trained to deliver these high-quality sessions for all children who require it. This approach is also used as an intervention if required.
• Although children have a discrete phonics session, staff provide many opportunities across the curriculum for children to apply their knowledge of phonics in a different context. This is further developed in English sessions where children use the taught strategies from phonics in their independent writing.

Writing:

• Grammar skills are embedded within the context of high-quality texts ensuring the function of grammatical devices is the objective. Staff expertise means that children practise a skill and are challenged to reason within this area so that it can be transferred across into the children’s independent writing. This means that grammar skills are purposeful and match the features of the task so that children connect all of their writer’s tools.
• Children here genuinely enjoy writing because they are encouraged to take risks when writing; take ownership of a task by making their own choices and develop their own style. Staff facilitate this by sharing high-quality exemplars; analysing the tools required within the features and then allowing the children autonomy to shape their own writing.
• Natural writers are encouraged to develop their own style so that they can choose how to use the writing tools that they have been taught and in turn use this freedom to develop their writer’s voice often resulting with many children mastering writing.
• Early writing encompasses all areas of provision within EYFS where the youngest writers within school are provided with a broad writing diet.
• Once children have consolidated the foundations for phonics, we use the Read Write Inc Spelling programme to teach spelling across KS1 and KS2. This is a consistent approach to teaching spelling and the coverage has progression through year groups built in.
• Teachers use a range of strategies to deliver the programme to ensure children make progress.
• Teachers are eager to ensure that taught spelling skills are transferred independently within writing tasks. Children are actively encouraged to use the taught spelling strategies across other areas of the curriculum.
• Teachers are skilled within this area of the curriculum and will take the opportunities to review previous year group’s spelling skills spontaneously within other lessons when appropriate.
• Children are taught the skills to proof-read their own writing and in turn are encouraged to correct their spellings using the strategies taught in sessions.

Speaking & Listening:

• Modelling how to justify own reasons is planned carefully into reading sessions so that children can apply these skills through a range of phrases in other contexts. This is further enhanced in whole-school debating style sessions aligned to a shared text. This is supported when necessary using sentence frames and stems.
• High-quality texts that deal with contemporary issues provide the vehicle for children to question and hypothesise within a safe environment. Staff are equipped to manage these discussions in a sensitive manner so that most children feel confident to share their opinion.
• Within class discussions, children are encouraged to adapt and change their viewpoint as they develop further knowledge of a topic. This is where some children excel in this area and model exemplary speaking habits.
• Visual resources and images are used to stimulate meaningful discussions where all children, including the youngest and more reluctant learners, can participate. 
• All staff model Standard-English throughout school and children work hard to reflect this.
• Children take part in a range of opportunities to speak publicly across the school year including focused curriculum sharing assemblies (friendship week & multi-cultural week); whole-school assemblies for parents; productions (Christmas, Carol Services, Easter Service and Y6) and an external company who provide ‘A play in a day’ for all year groups related to a curriculum area (for example EYFS Pirates, Y3 Stone Age- Iron Age etc…)

Our learnt Curriculum

The impact and measure of English teaching at St Robert Bellarmine is that children develop a toolkit of key skills that they can apply to reading, writing and speaking & listening. Pupils experience a diverse and rich curriculum that equips them with the skills to succeed in all three areas.

Assessment is built in at all stages of the teaching of English skills. Formative assessment is used daily to ensure lessons are crafted the reflect the needs of all learners. Feedback is given in a child-appropriate way and teachers strive for all children to have the knowledge and ownership of how to improve their reading and writing.

Reading:

• Highly- skilled staff who craft questions in reading sessions to tease out learning from all pupils from EYFS- Year 6. Consistent monitoring of reading skills ensures that assessment of reading is rigorous and accurate.
• Staff who consistently evaluate the purpose of the texts chosen so that they match the interests and the needs of their classes
• Staff expertise and the wealth of resources ensure that all readers, including those who are reluctant make progress and develop into ‘real readers’

Writing:

• Consistent approaches to assessing writing is evident through the plans; teacher feedback and valuable discussions with children. All staff are astutely aware of how to move a child on in their writing and this is reflected in the progress made.
• Children are taught the purpose of planning a piece of writing so that they fully recognise the importance of this stage and use it when writing. Equally, children are taught skills to both proof-read their writing and edit it so that it can be the best that it can be.
• High expectations from staff ensure that presentation and handwriting is of a high standard. All children recognise the importance of this and in turn work hard to produce writing that is well-presented.

Speaking and Listening:

• High-quality texts that deal with contemporary issues provide the vehicle for children to question and hypothesise within a safe environment. Staff are equipped to manage these discussions in a sensitive manner so that most children feel confident to share their opinion.
• Within class discussions, children are encouraged to adapt and change their viewpoint as they develop further knowledge of a topic. This is where some children excel in this area and model exemplary speaking habits.
• Staff have been trained to use a range of principles to encourage precision in vocabulary. These principles underpin many teaching sessions across the curriculum as staff use a wealth of resources that equip the children with skills to identify and reason with language. Enhancing vocabulary is embedded across all subjects and teachers strive to provide purposeful activities where language development is promoted. Although this is a key strand within guided reading sessions, staff use these principles to support all learning across the curriculum.
• Skilled staff plan writing activities with a clear purpose and audience. This means that children are involved in rich conversations regarding the scale of formality to ensure the correct vocabulary, grammar and punctuation is selected to match the intended audience. This is further enhanced in upper key stage 2 where a more detailed analysis is expected when planning writing activities. Children can verbally justify these choices before they record them in their written form.

To explore how this curriculum area is taught in your child's class please refer to their class page.