At St Mary’s, we deliver a high-quality, ambitious English curriculum designed to develop and nurture a whole-school love of reading and writing. Our aim is for every child to become an effective communicator, confident in both understanding the written word and expressing themselves through their own writing.
Through VIPERS lessons, we connect our chosen texts with Catholic Social Teaching themes and Fundamental British Values. Pupils engage with a wide range of texts linked to curriculum topics and wider subject areas. We also promote a love of reading at home, celebrating individual and class achievements in reading alongside families.
In English lessons, we continue to make meaningful links between our core texts, Catholic Social Teaching, and British Values. Whole-class sessions are talk-rich and creative, ensuring all children are active participants in their learning. We are committed to fostering engaged, curious, and confident writers.
Teachers carefully track National Curriculum objectives in their planning to ensure full coverage of all writing skills and knowledge areas, including spelling, handwriting, composition, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation. Planning is scaffolded and adapted to meet the needs of all learners.
Curriculum Intent
In EYFS, Year 1, and Year 2, children are taught reading daily through the Twinkl Phonics and Reading Fluency programmes, focusing on decoding, prosody, and comprehension.
In Key Stage 2, reading is taught through discrete VIPERS sessions, planned by class teachers to meet National Curriculum objectives and key reading skills. Teachers model fluent reading aloud, demonstrating inference and comprehension strategies. Texts are selected from recommended year group reading lists and often link closely to our CLPE English texts.
KS2 pupils are encouraged to choose books independently from our extensive library, guided by their STAR Reader Assessment and individual ZPD range, ensuring they read texts that both support and challenge them.
Our reading curriculum is inclusive and talk-rich, designed for all pupils regardless of individual needs or disabilities. Teaching is adapted where necessary through scaffolding, classroom support, flexible learning environments, and a variety of accessible activities.
At St Mary’s, writing is taught through CLPE core texts selected for their rich imagery, seasonal relevance, and alignment with our Values and Virtues, Catholic Social Teaching, and the specific needs of each cohort. Sequential and coherent planning immerses pupils in the text type and writing style they will independently produce by the end of each sequence.
Through CLPE activities, we provide a talk-rich environment that develops pupils’ vocabulary, language knowledge, and writing independence. Each term, pupils also study poetry to deepen their appreciation of language and develop expressive writing skills.
In EYFS and KS1, handwriting is taught using the Letterjoin programme to ensure children develop a legible, fluent cursive script. This continues into Year 3 and beyond for those needing further support. Spelling is taught through the Twinkl scheme in sequenced lessons that build accuracy and
understanding of patterns. Daily short spelling sessions include games and application opportunities to embed learning.
Curriculum Implementation
Teachers plan half-termly overviews for reading and writing that include clear outcomes and weekly GPS objectives. Each lesson focuses on a manageable step of new learning aligned with the National Curriculum.
A typical lesson structure includes:
Flashback: Retrieval of prior learning through low-stakes activities.
Teach it: Introduction of new content with live modelling and discussion of misconceptions.
Practise it: Opportunities for independent and collaborative practise using active learning strategies.
Prove it: Application of knowledge and skills such as decoding, vocabulary, inference, grammar, and composition within a specific writing style (e.g. persuasive text, letter, narrative).
Deepen it: Extension tasks that challenge pupils to broaden and deepen their understanding e.g. through editing, reviewing, presenting, or linking to wider curriculum themes or Catholic Social Teaching.
Curriculum Impact
At St Mary’s, we believe reading is the foundation for success across all areas of the curriculum. Our dedicated approach ensures every child makes strong progress and develops as an independent, lifelong reader. We are passionate about nurturing a genuine love of reading by immersing pupils in diverse texts, genres, and authors both inside and outside the classroom.
We value all aspects of writing—from phonics, vocabulary, and sentence construction to idea development, composition, and editing. Each year group is given opportunities to build, practise, and refine these skills. Learners are exposed to a variety of resources and writing examples across the curriculum to support their growth as confident writers.
Assessment
Assessment is ongoing and embedded in every lesson through live feedback. Pupils respond to feedback codes immediately and receive next steps to advance their learning.
All year groups complete PIRA reading assessments three times per year (with Years 2 and 6 using SATs papers). Teachers analyse results through QLA documents to identify individual and cohort needs, informing future planning. Continuous assessment through questioning and observation further refines teaching.
Writing is formally assessed termly using Writing TAFs, moderated in staff meetings, and recorded on Bromcom. Progress is reviewed during pupil progress meetings.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Review
The teaching and learning of reading and writing are monitored through lesson drop-ins, pupil voice, book looks, planning reviews, coverage tracking, termly data analysis, progress meetings, and moderation. Additional monitoring includes phonics assessments, Year 1 Phonics Screening, Year 2 and 6 SATs results, and PIRA assessments conducted three times per year (Years 1–5).
English Curriculum Plan 2023-2024
Reading - Curriculum Progression Map
Writing - Curriculum Progression Map
Spoken Language - Curriculum Progression Map
Grammar and Punctuation - Curriculum Progression Map