At St Rose's we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. Our English curriculum provides purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children 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

Phonics and Reading

At St. Rose's we follow the Essentials Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme to teach phonics. We encourage our children to have a love of reading and ask parents/carers to foster this by listening to and reading with your child regularly at home. In school Guided Reading sessions, we ensure that all our books are phonetically matched according to the correct phase each child is learning and that all the books are fully decodable. 

A love of reading!

Learning to read is perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can ever give a child. Many adults remember those special books that we loved to read as children; those books that made us laugh, smile and the adventure they took us on.

At St Rose’s, we want to give every child this same passion for reading. We have worked with the School Book List to resource every classroom book corner at school with a fresh range of appropriate and exciting texts. 

Please follow the link below to see the books that are in your child’s book corner. You may wish to purchase one or two of these fabulous texts to enjoy with your child at home. 

Reading at home

Want some ideas for what to ask your child about when you are reading together? 

Have a look at our top questions home reading…

What questions should I ask my child when reading fiction books?

• Where does the story take place?
• When did the story take place?
• What did he/she/ it look like?
• Would you like to have a friend like this character? Why?
• How did you feel during different parts of the story, what made you feel like this?
• Through whose eyes was the story told?
• What part of the story did you like/dislike the most? Why?
• Have you read any other stories which were similar?
• Do you know any other authors who write about the same issues?
• What do you think these words mean?
• Do you think this book was as good as …?
• What part of the book was the saddest, funniest or most interesting?
• Did the pictures help you to understand more about the story? Why?
• What questions would you like to ask the author?
• Do you think all children would like this book?

What are good questions to ask children when reading non-fiction books?

• What have you learned from this children’s book?
• Who do you think would find this book the most interesting?
• How would you use the index page to find something out?
• (Look at the contents page) What page would you use to find out about …?
• Do you think this book could be improved? Why?
• Did you find the diagrams, illustrations or photographs helpful? Why?

Want some helpful hints for how pronounce sounds and guided reading tips?

Our staff have record helpful videos modelling guided reading tips. Below are also some videos of each phase of phonics teaching where the pronunciation of all sounds are modelled.  Watch the videos to find out more about supporting reading at home.

Writing

At St. Rose's we encourage children to write regularly across the curriculum, in all subjects.

Autumn Term

To start this school year off, we all participated in an 'Explore and Engage' unit linked to the text 'Tuesday'. Nursery to Year 2 all did activities linked to the story.

Early Years:

Early years have practicing the correct letter formation for the sounds they have learnt in phonics. They have also been learning how to write their names and the correct formation for numbers. 

KS1:

What is a sentence? This has been focus for the start of the year, consolidating what forms a sentence.