Pupil Shared Reading (Lunchtime Club)
Local Library Visits
Collapsed Curriculum Days
Each year, we have two whole school collapsed curriculum days, where the whole school spend the entire day immersed in reading or writing.
Here is the video link to our World Book day 2023 – Non-Fiction Writing day
Open Reading Sessions
Every year, all of our classes host ‘Open Reading’ sessions, where their family members are invited into school to come and share some quiet reading time together.
Early Years
English Policy
Reading Intent
Reading Curriculum Intent 2024
Writing Intent
Writing Curriculum Intent 2024
Progression Maps
Handwriting Progression Map
Phonics Progression Map
Class 1 (EYFS & Yr1)
Class 2 (Yr1 & Yr2)
Class 3 (Yr3 & Yr4)
Class 4 (Yr5 & Yr6)
At St. Mary’s, our Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) Scheme is Pearson’s Phonics Bug.
Phonics Information for Parents
All you need to know about phonics – Pearson – YouTube
Phonics Pronunciation Guide & Sound board
Bug Phonics Pronunciation Guide
You Tube Video – Mr Bates Bug Club
Phonics Bug Phase 2 – Mr Bates Online
At our school we use the Accelerated Reader and Star Reader programmes to access and promote our pupils’ reading development.
As part of the programme each child will be assessed and select reading materials from an appropriate range of books. After the children read their book they undertake an online quiz to assess their understanding of the text.
The programme provides our staff and parents with data along the way that allows us to carefully monitor the progress and development of each child.
We are very proud within our school community to acknowledge how hard our pupils work with their reading and take great satisfaction from how many of them choose to “read for pleasure”, a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Information for Parents
No Nonsense Spelling Progression
Common Exception Words
Common exception words are a group of words that appear very often in written texts and in spoken language, but which do not always follow the phonics rules and therefore cannot be decoded. In each phase, there are sets of common exception words that the children should be able to read and spell independently.
Year 1 & 2 Common Exception Words
Our school follow the Martin Harvey Handwriting Scheme.
Children take part in daily handwriting lessons which teach them not only letter formation and letter families, but also about how to sit correctly, hold their pencil correctly and about taking care and pride in the presentation of high quality written work.
