English

English
at St John’s Catholic Infant School

In English, children across the school are taught speaking and listening, reading and writing skills. We use a wide range of methods and materials for teaching Reading and Writing including Ruth Miskin synthetic phonics, Talk for Writing, Spelling Shed, Penpals Handwriting, Bug Club and other excellent strategies. Talk for Writing is an approach we have adopted to ignite a love of literature from an early age and to ensure that the children at St John’s make the best progress they can in writing.

At St John’s Infants we value reading as it is a core activity in all aspects of learning and we promote a love of books. Every classroom contains a cosy reading area and book box where the children are encouraged to explore and handle a range of books. Stories and information books are shared daily with children and books are used to enhance areas of learning both indoors and out. As a whole school, we enjoy celebrating reading by participating in fun events for ‘World Book Day’ when different year groups work together and share their favourite stories. Reading is taught by following the Ruth Miskin Synthetic Phonics Schemes. Children receive daily phonics teaching that is differentiated to ensure all children progress.

Alongside this, children complete a weekly ‘Group Read’ with an adult and engage in shared reading opportunities. Children also take home a ‘phonetically decodable’ ‘home reader’ on a weekly basis. The school also uses the Bug Club On-Line Reading Scheme to widen the children’s reading and support home learning. We use the Bug Club Shared Reading programme in school that has high-quality books, designed to be read out loud, to encourage excitement around reading for pleasure. With a structured, systematic approach to vocabulary progression, these beautifully illustrated books introduce children to rich and challenging words from other subject areas, enabling them to make cross-curricular links in their learning.