English

“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” – Dr Martin Luther King

Intent

At St Agnes, our reading and writing curriculum is designed to develop confident, articulate communicators who are passionate about literature and skilled in expressing themselves across all forms of writing.

Our intent is to ensure that all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or have special educational needs, develop:

  • Strong foundational skills in phonics, reading fluency, spelling, handwriting, and grammar

  • Extensive vocabulary and sophisticated comprehension abilities

  • A love of books that extends beyond the classroom

  • The ability to write with clarity, creativity, and technical accuracy

Through our curriculum, we aim to:

  • Immerse children in engaging literature that provides authentic purposes and audiences for their writing across multiple genres

  • Develop systematic reading skills, enabling pupils to retrieve information, make inferences, analyse language, and evaluate texts with increasing depth and independence

  • Prioritise reading widely and often, fostering lifelong readers

  • Empower pupils to become confident writers who can articulate their ideas, emotions, and understanding effectively

  • Prepare pupils for success in their future learning and life beyond primary school

Implementation

We use Pathways to Write and Complete Comprehension as our core approaches, providing a rich, interconnected curriculum where high-quality texts serve as the foundation for both deep comprehension and inspiring writing.

Pathways to Write:

Through this approach:

  • Children are immersed in engaging literature

  • High-quality texts provide authentic purposes and audiences for writing

  • Pupils write across multiple genres with real meaning and context

Complete Comprehension:

Through this approach, pupils:

  • Develop systematic reading skills

  • Learn to retrieve information

  • Make inferences

  • Analyse language

  • Evaluate texts with increasing depth and independence

Curriculum structure:

Our curriculum is built on:

  • Carefully sequenced, literature-rich units that interweave reading and writing instruction

  • Strong foundational skills teaching in phonics, reading fluency, spelling, handwriting, and grammar

  • Systematic vocabulary development

  • Regular opportunities to read widely and often

Inclusion:

We ensure that:

  • All pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or have special educational needs, can access and succeed in our curriculum

  • Teaching is adapted to meet individual needs whilst maintaining high expectations for all

Impact

Through our reading and writing curriculum, pupils at St Agnes will:

  • Become confident, articulate communicators

  • Be passionate about literature and reading

  • Be skilled in expressing themselves across all forms of writing

  • Have strong foundational skills in phonics, reading fluency, spelling, handwriting, and grammar

  • Possess extensive vocabulary and sophisticated comprehension abilities

  • Be able to retrieve information, make inferences, analyse language, and evaluate texts with depth and independence

  • Write with clarity, creativity, and technical accuracy across multiple genres

  • Have a love of books that extends beyond the classroom

  • Be lifelong readers and confident writers

  • Articulate their ideas, emotions, and understanding effectively

  • Be well-prepared for success in their future learning and life beyond primary school


Writing Progression N - 6