English at St Andrew’s CE Primary School

At St Andrew’s CE Primary School, we believe that reading and writing are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to nurturing and inspiring our whole school community, using our Christian values of love, respect, and trust to help every child flourish and let their light shine.

Reading

Reading is a fundamental part of our curriculum, and we ensure that all our pupils are given the opportunity to read every day. We use a range of strategies to enhance our reading curriculum, including daily whole-class guided reading sessions. To promote a love of reading, we carefully select texts that we know the children will enjoy.

All children begin their reading journey with a systematic approach to phonics, which continues until they have mastered the art of decoding. We also teach vocabulary extensively to improve comprehension, and we use the VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarisation) approach to help our children develop their reading skills. Importantly, all books are matched to the children’s reading abilities, ensuring that they are challenged but not overwhelmed.

Writing

At St Andrew’s CE Primary School, we believe in nurturing and inspiring our pupils to develop a love for writing that reflects their unique voices and talents. To support this vision, we have adopted the Literacy Tree approach, a book-based framework designed to enhance our writing curriculum through rich literature and engaging texts.

What is the Literacy Tree?

The Literacy Tree is an innovative approach that uses high-quality children’s literature as the foundation for teaching writing. By immersing pupils in captivating stories and diverse genres, we aim to cultivate their creativity, comprehension, and composition skills. This method aligns with our school’s vision of helping every child to flourish and let their light shine.