English

Our vision is to provide an excellent, well-rounded education which celebrates academic, emotional and spiritual achievement and prepares everyone to fulfil their full potential in an inclusive environment in God’s World.

“All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.” 1 Chronicles 28:19

As stated in the National Curriculum Purpose of Study for English, “the over-arching aim is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.”

At St George’s, our English curriculum is underpinned by the above statement and we believe that English is an essential part of children’s development throughout the school, from our youngest children in Nursery, through to the young adults we hand over to the next phase of their lifelong journey.

The following aims are embedded within our teaching and are central to the engaging lessons where our children encounter a range of opportunities to explore mathematics following a mastery curriculum approach.

We aim for all pupils to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding

• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information • acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

Our intent is for all children to believe in themselves as effective communicators and confident readers and writers. Underpinning our pedagogy is a belief that all children can achieve in English and we provide an immersion into a world of high-quality texts, to help instil a lifelong love of reading, the ability to access the wider curriculum and give them confidence to explore their imagination and creativity.

At our school, our approach is to provide all children full access to the curriculum in order to achieve their full potential, whilst raising awareness of the world, widening horizons and developing their cultural capital. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing. We also recognise that many children can find reading and writing difficult and we promote an ‘I can do’ philosophy in which we aim to develop ‘growth mindset’ attitudes.  Children are provided with a challenging curriculum to build their resilience and promote imagination; they are reminded that it is acceptable to get the wrong answers and even experience difficulties when faced with challenges and anything new or unfamiliar. Teachers use these experiences to address mistakes and misconceptions, enabling them to learn in a safe and curious environment, which in turn allows all children to flourish. This also includes our SEND children who have their needs scaffolded in order for them to access challenging English activities.