Our Curriculum
Our Diverse Curriculum
As a school, we are passionate that our children receive a broad, balanced, inclusive and diverse curriculum. Within this subject, we will ensure…
- Literature is selected which encourages pupils to empathise with the feelings and experiences of others to help develop their understanding of other people’s attitudes, ideas and behaviour. Pupils develop sensitive awareness of, and the ability to respond constructively to, backgrounds, experiences, concerns, feelings and the commitments of others through a range of different narratives. Pupils learn to empathise with others and offer feedback to their peers regarding their written work in a supportive and collaborative manner.
- Pupils are provided with opportunities to extract meaning beyond the literal and consider hidden meanings whilst engaging with writing from all genres: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They explore how the choice of a writer’s language used and their style affects implied and explicit meaning. Pupils learn how to use language in imaginative and original ways, drawing on knowledge of what they have read and considering how words, usage and meaning change over time.
Our Ambitious Curriculum
Pupils are provided with opportunities to write texts that portray issues and events relating to contemporary life or past experiences in interesting and challenging ways. Exploring and analysing their own and others’ work, and writing their own pieces gives pupils the knowledge and ability to question and reason.
All children are provided with opportunities to engage with challenging literature and apply their literacy skills when exploring quality texts and models of writing, both within lessons and independently. Pupils are provided with the opportunities to develop their resilience when writing independently for example in ‘Big Writing’ sessions and across the curriculum.
Participation, creativity, reflection and independence are encouraged in all English lessons. As pupils gain further confidence in their phonic knowledge, composition and transcription skills, they therefore gain greater independence within their learning.
Inclusive Approach
All pupils are taught at their National Curriculum stage to avoid attainment gaps widening. The use of scaffolding and small group support for SEND/bottom 20% and EAL pupils helps pupils to meet the Learning Challenge for the lesson as well as provide a challenging pitch and open-ended tasks catering for the needs of the More Able pupils.
The writing curriculum at St Michael and St Martin has been constructed to ensure an appropriate level of challenge for pupils of all abilities. A ‘mastery’ approach ensures that skills are embedded and that there is a deepening of knowledge for pupils who are deemed to be ‘exceeding’ with further opportunity to use and apply their skills in other ways within their curriculum stage.
Class teachers closely monitor each child’s progress in writing and evaluate their abilities according to the Hounslow Assessment Framework rubric. The APP process ensures that children working at Greater Depth, SEND and PP children are selected and monitored consistently to enable all children to make the best progress possible.