At St. Francis we recognise that English is a vital component in concept formation in all areas of the curriculum. Our aim is to develop each child’s ability to understand, communicate, interpret and appreciate the world around him/her. The English programme at St. Francis promotes the four key components: speaking, listening, reading and writing.
We aim to teach all pupils:-
To listen attentively with understanding and appreciation.
To speak confidently and clearly, and to use appropriate language for different occasions.
To read fluently and accurately with understanding, enjoyment, feeling and discrimination.
To communicate in writing with confidence, pleasure and a sense of purpose, for a wide range of audiences.
To write competently by developing the skills of handwriting, spelling, punctuation, syntax and usage. We encourage the children to use cursive script when writing.
These skills are taught in the context of a wide range of real and purposeful activities. We foster a very positive, caring and stimulating approach to books in order to develop each child’s awareness of good literature.
This is achieved by :
Activities that promote reading for enjoyment and pleasure.
Maintaining a rich book environment throughout the school.
Reading aloud to children, throughout the week, stories and poems which expose them to the language of Literature and help them to become readers for life.
Creating a partnership with parents involving regular reading with the children at home and at school.
English is taught every day in a variety of ways including the writing for a purpose, story times, discussions, through extended writing, word processing and desk top publishing etc.
RWI/Fresh Start are the programmes currently used to teach phonics at our school.