English

My name is Mrs Finney, and I am the English lead at Saint Peter’s. I have always loved English and it was my favourite subject when I was at school.

Introduction to English at Saint Peter’s.

Here at St. Peter's children in Reception to Year 6 have a daily reading lesson. We follow the Bug Club reading scheme which enables the children to read and enjoy high quality books, in a range of genres and with a selection of authors. We do daily fluency to ensure the children learn not only across the curriculum, but also to access aspects of daily life, influencing the opportunities that they have available to them in the future.

We have a library with a calm and welcoming atmosphere, there is a wide range of books and the children enjoy choosing a range of fiction and non-fiction books. Our Reading Club is held in our library, and we also have an outdoor reading box, complete with a blanket and puppet. There is even a reading box in the staff room! Each class has their own reading area in their classroom.

Each class has timetabled reading for pleasure, where children can share books, discuss authors, make recommendations and review and discuss similar themes and genres. This further develops a love of reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure books are chosen from the top 100 reads to ensure progression; the children vote for their favourite book.

During English lessons, we have high quality class texts, with rich vocabulary and this enables the children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. We follow a sequence in each class of immersion into the text, looking at grammar and language features, planning, writing and finally editing our work. We encourage and support dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully. Our approach enables children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.

At St. Peter's, I love to make sure every child has the opportunity and support they need to flourish within the whole curriculum and have the true love of reading to last a lifetime and open any door.

At Saint Peter’s we value everyone, and we create a fully inclusive curriculum. We value English as the foundation to a secure education and being able to speak, write and read confidently to enable our children to achieve.

Our Vision:

At Saint Peter’s, English is at the heart of all learning, which enables us to communicate with others effectively for a variety of different purposes. We truly believe that the ability to both speak and listen well is essential for children to articulate their feelings, opinions and ideas. Alongside this, valuing the thoughts and views of others and treating each other with respect is a vital part of lifelong learning.

With this in mind, it is our vision that every child who enters our school will learn to become a writer. We will do this by giving all children exciting, inspiring and engaging materials and opportunities to support and challenge them. We will give them a wide and deep experience of a range of genres, text types and authors to help them develop their own creative and personal style. We truly believe this encouragement will enable them to become confident, capable, enthusiastic writers who will develop a genuine love of writing. They will use writing to express themselves and communicate with others, writing independently for a range of purposes.

Here at St. Peter’s we believe that progression within the year group, but also within the school, is of the upmost importance. We have clear progression documents for reading, writing and grammar, so there is a consistent approach.

We believe that our vocabulary is an essential aspect of our lives, learning and future. We have worked with St. Margaret Ward, our High School, to produce vocabulary dictionaries, these are especially useful for parents to know what their children are learning.

At Saint Peter’s, our vision for reading is that every child develops a true love of reading and this opens up a world of possibilities to achieve their dreams and aspirations. Every child should be able to read and enjoy reading a rich variety of genres and authors.

English within school:

Creative Writing Competition with Stoke Reads –

For World Book Day we focussed on poetry across the school, it was fabulous to see the progression and enjoyment. Key Stage 2 entered the Stoke Reads Creative Writing Competition, we wrote poems based on ‘Journeys’. We celebrated our local area and thought of the amazing journeys we go on in Stoke on Trent. What an achievement – Mobeen from Year 5 was a finalist, he said, “I am so proud, if you keep on trying and never give up you will achieve your dreams.”

Eco – Library – Stoke Reads –

We are very excited that St. Peter’s has been chosen as the first school to receive the Eco Library from Stoke Reads. What a fantastic opportunity and we are so proud of our children. There are a variety of fiction and non-fiction books that will help in our mission to be Stewards of God’s Creation.

National Story Telling Week –

We enjoyed a special week where lots of activities took place, our parents were invited in each morning to read with their children, it was so lovely to see so many parents love for reading. We had a teacher from a different class read us a story which was lots of fun and an assembly, which involved a quiz with characters and quotes –

World Book Day –

At St. Peter’s we celebrated World Book WEEK – it was a fun filled week with lots of learning opportunities. We had a whole school focus from Nursery to Year 6 on poetry, we enjoyed a whole school assembly and class workshops from a poet, what an exciting experience!

Our work is now showcased in the corridor to show everyone what fabulous poets we are and we are so proud of what we have achieved.

We would like to say a huge thank you to WHSmith in Hanley who kindly exchanged our vouchers for books for each child across the school. What an exciting moment that was, to receive our very own book to take home!

WEST END THEATRE came to St. Peter’s!

We were lucky enough to have Jason from West End theatres visit us for the day and we brought books to life through dance and drama workshops. What an opportunity! We saw lot’s of little super stars in the making!

National Story telling week –

We love reading at St. Peter’s, we choose fiction and non-fiction books. National Storytelling Week is a week for celebrating storytelling and encouraging people to tell their own stories.

Storytelling helps people to feel close to each other and to become friends. Storytelling helps people to understand the things that happen in the world. We have had a fabulous afternoon and the teachers have read a story to a different class from another Key Stage. What a treat for the staff and pupils!

Take a look –

EYFS and KS1 –

Key Stage 2 –

During the week every class looked at the beautiful book called, Rain to Rainbows –

This book also linked to our mental well being, which is so important to us here. We ensure that everyone feels safe and happy so that we learn to the best of our ability.

No More Marking –

We were very proud of one of our Year 3 children who had his work chosen to be published in the No More Marking report. He was chosen because it was a great example of a space Story – well done!! All your St. Peter’s family are so proud of you. I wonder if we will be reading your books when you become an author?

We celebrate our love for reading throughout the school.

Nursery Reception Year One

Year Two Year Three Year Four

Year Five Year Six

Have a look at our posters below to help develop your breadth of reading……

Additional Support

Please use the web links below to help support your children at home. Again if you find any good websites that you would like to recommend, please let us know and we will add them for all parents.

Key Stage One

Reading

Phonics

Writing

Key Stage Two

Reading

SPAG

Writing and other.