English at St Francis
At St Francis we intend for all pupils to experience an inspiring, language-rich and motivational English environment. We aim to foster a love of books and reading, alongside a positive culture of writing, for a variety of purposes and audiences and across all subjects within our broad curriculum.
When children begin their schooling at St Francis, they will begin their early reading and writing development supported by excellent synthetic phonics teaching, giving them the foundational skills needed to confidently segment, decode and build words. During their time at our school, all pupils will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide variety of texts from a range of different genres and cultures.
Through shared texts and explicit teaching, they will experience a wide range of vocabulary, giving them the understanding and power of language that they need to flourish. Our intent is for every child to leave our care as able and independent communicators, with the confidence and skills required to read and write fluently. They will be thoroughly prepared in all aspects of English and fully equipped for the next step in their educational journey.
Reading
‘Making sure that children become engaged with reading from the beginning is one of the most important ways to make a difference to their life chances, whatever their socio-economic background’
The Reading Framework July 2021
Our vision at St Francis is to nurture a life-long love of reading. We aim to develop confident readers who can actively chose, critique and comprehend texts. We strive for pupils to build an understanding of the wider world through varied high-quality texts in which they see themselves represented. Through their school career they are able to develop an identity as a reader.
We know that the development of reading skills is crucial to the progress that children make across the curriculum and we are intent in supporting the children to become confident and effective readers. We have high standards for our readers and expect them to make rapid and sustained progress throughout their time in school. We do this by setting challenging goals, putting support in place and empowering teachers to support the children on their reading journey.
Writing
‘You can make anything by writing’
C.S Lewis
Learning to write is one of the most important things that a child at primary school will learn. Good writing gives pupils a voice to share their ideas with the world. Writing at St Francis assumes the same priority as reading and is linked intrinsically. Proficient writing enables pupils to demonstrate a deep learning across a broad curriculum. Pupils who can articulate what they know in writing, can evidence what they have understood.
We want our pupils to not only be able to write proficiently, with accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar, but to be able to do so in a manner that enables them to develop their individual flair and character within their writing; across a variety of formal and informal genres. To do this, pupils need a strong command of vocabulary. An understanding of a wide range of words enables our pupils to use them in context. We believe that if our pupils can articulate and explain what they think; they can ask the right questions to learn more across the curriculum.
Handwriting
“Teaching handwriting and spelling (transcription) from the reception year is crucial to ensure that these skills become automatic for children. This will free up their working memory for composition.”
The Writing Framework 2025
We believe it is essential for children to develop handwriting that is neat, legible, and fluent. By teaching transcription skills until they become automatic, we help pupils free up their thinking so they can focus on the creativity and content of their writing.
We teach handwriting using the LetterJoin scheme, which introduces children to a clear, cursive style. Families can also access LetterJoin at home, making it easy to practise together and support children’s progress.
Spelling
Children are taught a spelling rule within each of their writing units, alongside regular practice of the common exception words. Spelling is embedded in our writing curriculum, and each week pupils are given spellings to practise at home. This helps them build accuracy and confidence while learning the rules outlined in the National Curriculum for their year group, as well as the common exception words linked below.