English Leader: Mrs Elliott-Duff

At the heart of our approach to learning at St Margaret’s is high quality literature.  We have based our curriculum on the Power of Reading, supported by other materials, which enables children to develop into confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We choose our texts carefully to widen our pupils’ experiences of life and to enable them to empathise with the characters and consider important issues in the modern world.

We aim to engender a love of reading and a fascination with vocabulary. We explicitly teach a wide range of vocabulary to the children during their time at the school. This helps them understand and evaluate the ideas of others and gives them the skills they need in reading, writing and oral communication. Access to a wide range of quality literature enables the children to become confident and articulate speakers who can debate, express opinions and listen carefully to the views of others. We use drama regularly in our reading and writing activities to bring books to life and help children empathise with the characters. We provide a wide range of reading materials and help the children to develop their own tastes as readers.

The essential skills of phonics are taught systematically at the appropriate level for pupils throughout the school. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught explicitly in each year group and these skills are then used in the writing the children produce. We expose the children to a wide range of authors and help them develop their own writing skills so that they can express themselves clearly in a range of writing styles including: narrative fiction, factual reports, letters, diary entries and poetry.

We have a well-stocked school library to which all children from have access. Staff are on hand to help the children find books which will engage and inspire  them.