"The ability to communicate effectively is a key skill, and the better we are at it, the better our quality of life will be."

At Sacred Heart, we strongly believe in instilling a high standard of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills for all of our pupils. In doing so, children will be at an advantage as they access all areas of the curriculum and they will develop into confident and literate members of society.

The core intent at the centre of our English Curriculum is to deliver a high-quality and engaging framework, which enables pupils to speak, read and write fluently. English is a core subject and our curriculum ensures full coverage of the National Curriculum (2014).

Our English programme of study focuses on five key areas:

• Reading
• Writing
• Spoken language
• Vocabulary development and
• Spelling, punctuation and grammar.

At Sacred Heart, we believe that quality children's literature is at the heart of all learning. As a result, the highly acclaimed Power of Reading Scheme from the CLPE is central to our teaching of English. The Power of Reading Scheme has supported thousands of schools in raising engagement and attainment in reading and writing for all children. Its framework utilises an immersive approach to engage children with high-quality texts and encourage them to explore different purposes for writing.

In order to implement the intent for our English curriculum, great focus is placed on ensuring that the following is embedded throughout the school: 

• Encouraging a love of literature through our ‘Reading Community’.
• Immersing pupils in a diverse literacy heritage and a variety of text types.
• Creating a safe environment in which all pupils feel valued and are encouraged to communicate with confidence, fluency and understanding.
• Exposing children to a range of rich vocabulary across many areas of the curriculum.
• Giving our pupils opportunities to explore writing for different purposes in order to develop knowledge and progress skills across a range of genres.
• Correcting spelling and grammar in a sensitive and constructive manner.
• Encouraging pupils to develop a clear and legible handwriting style.

Across all classes, teachers plan engaging lessons, which promote active learning and participation. All lessons are taught with a clear learning objective and success criteria are listed to demonstrate how learning will be achieved. All lessons are sequential and show the necessary progression of knowledge and skills.

Due to how invaluable speaking, listening, reading and writing skills are, our teaching of them is threaded throughout all areas of the curriculum and school life. By exploring these skills in a variety of different settings, they become deeply integrated as pupils can apply the same skills in different settings.

More Information

The following documents outline the content of the English Curriculum that is taught at the school. These documents should be read in conjunction with the Termly Curriculum Outlines, as these provide more detailed information of the how these topics are taught.

• Whole School Curriculum - English
• SH English Curriculum - Intent, Implementation and Impact
• SH English Programme of Study
• SH Photographs of English Curriculum
• Year 1 - English Overview
• Year 2 - English Overview
• Year 3 and 4 - English Overview
• Year 5 and 6 - English Overview
• English Glossary of Terms

The Writing Process at Sacred Heart

Examples of Writing