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English and Phonics

Like all primary schools, our aim at St Mary’s is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping our children with a strong command of the spoken and written language.

A large percentage of our weekly timetable is spent on the teaching and learning of speaking and listening, reading and writing skills. 

You can find out more about how we teach reading, phonics and writing under the relevant tabs. 

We are particularly proud of the way all staff at St Mary’s promote a love for reading and writing.
  • We are a flagship school for Coram Beanstalk Volunteers whose support for our children with reading is invaluable.
  • We make regular visits to the local library as well as having our own well stocked school library and class libraries.
  • We celebrate reading at every opportunity we can, with World Book Day being a memorable day every year.
  • We have weekly book clubs with the children in Years 3 to 6 run by the Head of school and the English Lead.
  • We endeavour to take the children to the theatre and welcome theatre groups to the school.
  • We expect our children to write, rehearse and recite their lines for class assemblies.
  • We work with local authors and poets to inspire our children to write about their local setting.
  • We create as many opportunities as we can with our families to engage in reading with us, through drop in phonics sessions, family reading for pleasure sessions and specific family learning meetings and demonstration lessons.
Reading
Writing
Handwriting
Phonics

Please view our Family Learning.

Year 6 with Local Poet Hilaire

We do this with the aim that our children read for pleasure and will choose a book over a device. So that they choose never to be too far away from paper and a pencil to write a new story or poem. We want our children to make the decision to read around a subject to improve their knowledge in a particular area of interest, and feel compelled to write letters about issues they are passionate about. We want them to engage in discussions about favourite authors, imaginary places, disappointing endings and news articles. We want them to join in the fight to save our libraries.

From the day they join us in the nursery, our children’s time will be spent in a language rich environment that celebrates reading and writing at every opportunity. As they progress through the school, they will be immersed in well chosen books covering a wide range of stories, information and poetry from a wide range of authors. Our book club and creative writing club encourages those with a particular interest in literature to take their learning further. They will be encouraged to become writers themselves, and by the time they leave us in Year 6, they will have the skills to write for a wide range of different purposes and for different audiences.

Useful Home Learning Links: