At the Cathedral School of St Mary we are committed to delivering a high quality, broad and balanced curriculum. We understand the importance of placing high quality, language rich texts at the heart of our curriculum. Children are encompassed by texts which allow them to explore the world, escape into magical worlds and engage with rich language in different contexts.
Children will escape, experience and explore these texts in English lessons, whole class guided reading sessions, curriculum lessons and dedicated times in classes where teachers read to their classes. The texts shared with our children will remain in our classrooms so children can read them again and again.
Intent - we aim to:
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foster a love of reading by listening to and interacting with a variety of literature, non-fiction and poetry.
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provide children with necessary life-long skills to ensure they can read confidently and with secure understanding
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build a community of engaged readers who turn to reading for meaning and pleasure by engaging with parents & other readers in our community.
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provide plenty of opportunities to read for pleasure
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ensure reading is a transferable skill and that children are reading across the wider curriculum
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develop a consistent approach to reading teaching in order to close any gaps and to target the highest number of children attaining the expected standard or higher.
Writing poses a great challenge for the working memory. Spelling is incredibly important: it facilitates communication and comprehension. When writing, children are using transcription skills (spelling & handwriting), text generation (ideas, words, sentences) and executive functions (planning, editing, motivation). The Simple View of Writing shows that children who can competently hold a pen, form letters correctly and have a key understanding of spelling rules and patterns are then able to focus their attention on the composition skills necessary to create a beautifully crafted piece of writing.
We follow the Twinkl spelling scheme and as such each week your child is given a spelling list. This list will either consist of words from your child’s year group statutory list, exception words or specific spelling patterns. We realise that learning spelling can seem like a tiresome chore. However, a little creativity can transform the task into a fun and memorable activity and one that the whole family can participate in. Click on the link below for some great ideas.
To find out how handwriting is taught throughout the school please read the 'Handwriting Policy' below. You will also find the 'Handwriting Progression' document which shows the expectations for handwriting in each year group.