The Divine Mercy RC Primary School - English Curriculum Intent

 “Jesus replied, ‘Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

At The Divine Mercy, we reflect the National Curriculum aims to:

• To have a high quality education that will teach children to speak, write, listen and read fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others
• Reading allows pupils to develop in a cultural, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual way.
• Children acquire knowledge to build on what they have already learnt. 
• All skills of the English language are essential to participating fully as members of society.

In this subject:

At The Divine Mercy, we aim to spread the Word of God.  We teach children to read, write, and speak well as these are the skills that they will need in making Christ known to the world.  We have high expectations for all children’s English ability, that we will enable them with skills that will allow them to communicate and express themselves in an ever-changing society.

In English, children have the opportunity to set their own success criteria and challenges.  We create opportunities for work to be celebrated, for example, publishing writing, sharing with other classes, writing to different people and organisations.  We work hard to inspire a love of writing.  Staff are reading role models who actively promote reading for pleasure ultimately helping students to become life-long readers.  Through reading a range of high quality texts, with relevant themes, we teach children ab out social injustice and how it can be overcome.  We teach children to be respectful and effective communicators.

Communication skills are taught throughout the whole school curriculum, especially in English, through high quality texts and themes for writing.  In all areas, speaking and listening is key.  We pride ourselves on our teaching of Drama.  Early reading led by structured synthetic phonics and reading for pleasure are integral to promoting high expectations and standards across the school.

We teach children to debate and write for specific purposes in line with Catholic social teaching.  Children write to world, religious and political leaders.  Drama links to SMSC big questions related to many themes including, tolerance, injustice and leadership.  Big questions contextualise SMSC in many areas of the curriculum and English; through texts, drama, and social aspects of stories teaching ideas related to British Values.  Resilience, respect and team work are transferrable skills which are taught and applied across the curriculum through strong listening skills and clarity in communication.

Jesus I Trust in You