English at St Francis
Our English lead is Miss Leah Deighan.
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.
Phonics
At our school, early reading is a priority. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme to give every child a strong foundation in reading and spelling. Through daily, systematic phonics lessons, children learn to recognise sounds, blend them to read words, and apply their growing knowledge with confidence.
Families play a vital role in supporting reading at home. Parents can help by listening to their child read their Little Wandle reading book regularly, practising the sounds and tricky words sent home, and enjoying stories together to build a love of reading. Little Wandle also provides helpful videos and guidance for families, which you can explore here:
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.
Once children complete the Little Wandle Phonics programme in Year 2, they move on to structured Reading lessons that build on the foundations they have already secured. From Year 2 through to Year 6, all classes follow a consistent weekly sequence that is carefully designed to develop and embed key reading skills. This approach ensures that pupils continue to grow as confident, fluent readers who can understand, interpret, and enjoy a wide range of texts as they progress through school.
To help to foster the love of reading for pleasure, each class has 10 to 15 minutes of story time at the end of each day.
Children at our school are listened to reading regularly so we can support their progress, build confidence, and help them develop essential fluency skills. But the biggest impact comes when this is paired with regular reading at home. Research shows that children who read frequently outside of school perform better academically. Studies consistently show that regular reading at home is one of the strongest predictors of exceeding age‑related expectations, especially in reading and writing.
Parents can make a real difference by listening to their child read each day, talking about the book together, and signing their reading record so we can celebrate their efforts in school. Working together, we can help every child become a confident, successful reader.
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.
Children in Nursery to Year 1 follow Griffin OT, which is a programme designed to develop strong early handwriting skills. The programme focuses on the foundations that matter most at this stage — core strength, fine‑motor control, pencil grip, letter formation, and confidence. In Year 2, when children have developed the early skills needed, they then graduate on to 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.
Where children may need a little more support with these foundational skills, children from all year groups may access a Griffin OT intervention group.
There are resources designed for parents to support at home:
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.
English Documentation
Here are some useful English resources that you can use at home:
Please click on the icons below to visit each website.
