English

At St Joseph's, all of our staff have a passion for reading and writing and we do everything that we can to develop the same passion in our students. We do not follow a shop-bought scheme, but instead follow a curriculum that we have written together and that we tweak and improve every year.

Across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we work in two week units. We start with a high quality text or a stimulus and then build up to a fantastic piece of writing every two weeks - from writing Noah's ark-building shopping list in Year 1 to a writing an extended story with flashbacks in Year 6.

Each two week unit gives children the chance to hone the relevant skills and to build their knowledge of the genre and the topic. Each unit will incorporate a combination of the following: reading, planning, understanding the genre, drafting, sentence building and vocabulary building.

Our writing vision is as follows:

1. We know what to write
2. We know how to write it well
3. We have the time and support that we need
4. We build a portfolio of best work.

We have many long-standing expectations and traditions to support your child in reading too.

Any child's reading journey begins with phonics and recognising key words. If you would like to know more about phonics and early reading at St Joseph's, please click here.

Every child, no matter their age, should listen to a story every day and to read to themselves, to each other and to an adult. We have a twice-annual whole school poetry recital and, of course, a big celebration of World Book Day.

We also have class authors in each class, from Eric Carle in Reception to the Bard himself, William Shakespeare in Year 6. Each class have opportunities to listen to books by these authors throughout the year and use these books to improve comprehension, to inspire discussion and to inspire those fantastic pieces of writing.

Our reading vision is:

1. We read to become fluent
2. We read to enjoy
3. We read to understand more

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