English
At St. Augustine's, our English curriculum is not only taught as a specific subject but also permeates through all other subjects to ensure our children are using and applying skills across a wide range of subjects. We ensure a high-quality education in English so our children will leave us 'secondary ready' with skills that allow them to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.
We are very passionate about reading in particular, ensuring our children grow to have a love of books and literature and encourage skills to allow pupils to acquire their own knowledge and lead their own learning. Classrooms are equipped with texts and genres to excite and inspire with families actively encouraged to share in our love of reading and support and foster this in their children too.
The National Curriculum has some overarching aims for English to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. In line with the National Curriculum, St Augustine's aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
- Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
- Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
- Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
As soon as pupils begin in EYFS we begin the daily and systematic teaching of Phonics, using the Letters and Sounds program. This takes pupils, in a stepped and measurable way, through the elements required to form the foundations of a fluent reader. Beginning with Phase 1, where pupils are taught to truly listen to sounds, the program layers learning following a cycle of Review-Teach-Practise-Apply.
At every stage, pupils are encouraged to apply their learning outside of the Phonic session and embed the sounds and associated spellings. Children (and families!) quickly become used to words such as phoneme, grapheme, blend and digraph, as they begin the wonderful journey of associating sounds to letters, which all translates to a love of reading! Sight words and High Frequency Words also play a part in ensuring our pupils are secure readers and ready for their statutory Phonic assessment in the Summer Term of Year 1. Please see below for a guide on Phonic terminology that is used in the classroom and with the children.
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| A Parents Guide to Phonic Terminology.pdf | Download |
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| STA Half Termly Oracy Tasks by Genre.docx | Download |
Home Learning
During this period of home-schooling, please see below for links and downloads to support children and families with English content, appropriate for age and stage. If your child is working either below or above their chronological age, please do look at the age groups either side of their class year group to support or stretch their learning. Where possible, links have been made to the topic themes for the Summer Term.
Spelling, Phonics, Grammar and Reading Support
Click on the document to find spelling rules and word lists for Years 1-6. 'Statutory' means the children should know how to spell the words for their age and stage as well as those that come before their current year group. Additionally, children should know the definition of the words too. Perhaps they could make their own dictionary with the words from their age and stage, siblings could test each other or a game of 'Hangman' always goes down well in the classrooms at St Augustine's!
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| National Curriculum Spelling Years 1-6.pdf | Download |
Stoke-on-Trent Libraries are inviting children and families to access the online library catalogue. Anyone can join – there are wonderful resources available for both children and adults. Just follow the link, register and read free e-books online, click and collect and if vulnerable these can be dropped off. It’s completely free to join the library and new members will be able to access a huge range of resources online straight away. Registering online will provide new members with a WEB registration number - in time these WEB numbers can be swapped for a physical library card but at the moment WEB registration numbers can be used in the same way as a regular library card number.
https://librariesonline.stoke.gov.uk/iguana/www.main.cls?sUrl=UserActivities&t=1610098413252#GuestRegistration=1
Alternatively, the library also has a great selection of eBooks and eAudiobooks available to download direct from their website: https://librariesonline.stoke.gov.uk/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=LibraryExtra
Pupils can access Accelerated Reader, to quiz on their books, from home by clicking the link below:
Year 3 -Year 6 Accelerated Reader
Additionally, the following link will take pupils to an online library of which around 850 books are also part of the Accelerated Reader quizzing portfolio.
Please download reading comprehensions for your children. There are a range of texts with questions to answer. For our KS1 children, the comprehensions are designed to improve their fluency so please read the short guidance on '60 seconds comprehension' so you can engage with this great resource. They do not need to be printed, accessed easily from a screen. We will shortly be adding a link for E-books so please check back later in the week.
Please click on the links for spelling support and interactive games. The Key Stages are just a guide, so feel free to dip in to the most suitable resource for your children:
EYFS-Y1
CBeebies 'Alphablocks' to support spelling and Phonics.
EYFS-Y2
Phonics Play, a great site to practise already taught and new skills to spell and read.
EYFS-Y2
Monster Phonics, another great site for Phonic development and reading.
KS1
Interactive games to practise KS1 spelling rules.
KS2
Interactive games to practise KS2 spelling rules.
Y2-Y6
Writing and Handwriting
Writing and handwriting are central to the curriculum across all ages and stages. Below, you will find some resources and links to help and hopefully inspire some creative writing. Each year group has access to;
- x 2 videos to inspire writing
- 'Resources' which can be used in any way to support the children when creating their written pieces.
- 'How To Use The Resources' which are a sequence of 'lessons' and a guide on how the resources could be utilised.
Ultimately, any writing effort is great, so please do use the following resources to make your home-schooling enjoyable and interesting in which ever way you choose.
The first link is to our school handwriting scheme and there are video tutorials too.
Writing Inspiration
Year 1
