Literacy

The Intent of our English Curriculum at Holy Family

At Holy Family, English is the core of our curriculum. Across each stage of our education in school, pupils are provided with opportunities to develop and apply their spoken and written English within a balanced, inspiring and creative curriculum.

Reading is the master skill of school and we aim to foster a life-long love of reading in all our children, developing avid readers who can access and appreciate our rich literacy heritage. We aim to provide a wealth of powerful reading experiences to fuel our pupil’s imaginations and develop their knowledge of the world in which they live. We prioritise the development of reading fluency to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils who at Holy Family are able to read with confidence, enabling them to be successful in their next stage of education and beyond.

A key aim for our pupils is effective communication of ideas and emotions, both orally and in written form. Spoken language is paramount at Holy Family, forming foundations for reading and writing. By immersing our pupils in high-quality texts and language-rich environments, we aim for our children to be able to describe their world, expressing their views and opinions articulately. We want our children to use discussion and debate to communicate and further their learning across the curriculum, elaborating and explaining their thinking and ideas. We strive to enable all pupils to develop a love of writing and the confidence to explore their imagination, nurturing our pupils’ motivation to write with purpose and with pleasure.

We believe that a secure knowledge of the English language is crucial to a high quality education and will give the children of Holy Family, the tools they need to contribute positively to the life of the school, their local community and the wider environment as a member of society.

Year 4 have written their own Ancient Maya recipes! They started the learning journey by playing barrier games where one partner had to give clear, precise instructions to the other partner to create a given model. Before writing their instructions, the children all made chilli hot chocolate and corn tortillas. Some children enjoyed the Ancient Maya diet... but not everyone! 

Year 1 have explored the skills of writing a non-chronological report this half-term. We have explored famous landmarks in London by looking at a virtual tour online, we researched facts about those landmarks and famous tourist destinations. We then combined all the research together to create a non-chronological report about the famous landmarks in London. 

Year 1 have been learning all about letters this half-term in literacy, focusing on the adventures of Paddington Bear in London. We have analysed the features of a letter and role-played the character Paddington, to support our becoming of the character, when writing a letter from Paddington to his Aunt Lucy in Peru. 

Our Literacy Learning Journey...Poetry.

Immerse- listen to a range of poems. Discuss and share our thoughts and feelings about the poems. Listen to others performing poetry and discuss what is needed when reading aloud. As a class we then shared poems together, making sure we gave reasons for why we chose that particular poem, we then read the aloud ensuring we used fluency and expression. Perfect Poetry! We will now move on to the skills section- exploring the skills needed to write a poem and then create our own poems, Miss Dyson cannot wait to hear your poems Year Two!  

Reception children have written instructions using recognisable letters and spelling words correctly.

They drew a map using their knowledge of the story, 'What the Ladybird Heard.'

The children in Year 5 took part in a national event where schools across the country were visited by dance teachers that taught them interpretive dances to the theme of Macbeth. They really enjoyed the opportunity to express themselves creatively and learnt more about the famous play which they could take into their creative writing later in the day.

In English, Year Four have interviewed a Roman solider so that they can fully understand what life must've been like while battling on the front line!

The children in Year 5 were excited to learn all about myths and legends in their recent literacy journey and enjoyed writing their very own.

Year 1 have explored the story 'Were Going on a Bear Hunt', we took ourselves on a Bear Hunt adventure around the school playground whilst reading and following the story. We have explored poetry features and skills such as rhyme and repetition and have analysed this throughout the book. We then used those skills to write our own poems about taking a walk to the park, focusing on our five senses, taste, smell, touch, hear and see. 

Year 1 have learnt all about 'instructions', how to follow them and how to create their own set of instructions. We have explored and used imperative verbs (bossy verbs) and time conjunctions to help write our own set of instructions on how to build a rocket and an aeroplane, linking to our Travel and Transport topic!

In Year 4, the children have been busy learning new skills to use in their historical narrative. The children have learnt about inverted commas, fronted adverbials and how to develop an idea so that their writing is coherent. The children started to plan their historical narrative, which they will start to write next week. 

In English, we have written a diary entry in first person, as Dougal. We followed the learning journey to finish with a final piece. 

Well done to the Writing Trophy winner - Year 6 pupil - Megan! For outstanding effort and producing some fantastic pieces of work!

The video below shows a sample of Year 6 writing from Autumn 1 - this includes writing towards a flashback narrative and a recount of our trip to Eden Camp!