Intent: at Holy Trinity & S. Silas, we believe that a rich, immersive, and aspirational English curriculum is essential for fostering within our children the intrinsic motivation to achieve and thrive as readers, writers, and orators. Our English teaching approach is crafted to mirror our school’s core values, the Three Cs of care, courage and cooperation.
Care:
- Embedding texts that promote empathy and understanding, helping children see themselves and their communities reflected in their reading.
- Contextualising the English curriculum within our well-being, rights, and sustainability initiatives to highlight the role of English in making positive societal changes.
- Encouraging discussions that develop a deep understanding of diverse perspectives and foster a sense of community and care.
- Selecting texts that promote social consciousness, featuring diverse characters and perspectives.
- Helping children explore feelings, develop empathy and see themselves in the stories they read.
- Encouraging children to become orators with the skills to understand, challenge, and express views in various contexts.
Courage:
- Equipping our children with the oracy skills needed to articulate and communicate their ideas confidently.
- Developing reading skills that empower children to think independently and challenge assumptions.
- Providing opportunities for children to learn and apply new vocabulary so they can speak knowledgeably and with authority on various subjects.
- Providing children with presentational skills to articulate and express their ideas with confidence.
- Creating an oracy-rich environment where children find the courage to speak up, over-coming the fear of making mistakes and deepening their knowledge through talk.
- Fostering a culture of risk-taking in writing, having the courage to try new vocabulary, styles and creative approaches.
- Supporting children to write for a range of purposes and audiences, so as to effectively express their thoughts, opinions and ideas, knowing that their words can make a difference.
Cooperation:
- Encouraging collaborative learning through group discussions, peer reviews, and cooperative projects.
- Providing structured opportunities for pupils to engage in meaningful dialogue about texts, enhancing comprehension and critical thinking.
- Supporting cooperative learning environments, where students help each other to achieve common goals in their literacy development.
- Equipping all children with a robust vocabulary to access and understand a broad and rich curriculum.
- Using a variety of texts to root the teaching of English in rich and challenging materials, enhancing reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
To read more about our English curriculum, including implementation and impact, please see our whole school curriculum map for English in the ‘related documents’ section of this page.