The skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening lie at the heart of the curriculum. Our language teaching covers the whole range of these skills, from the direct teaching of grammar, spelling and punctuation to the writing of imaginative stories and poetry to the encouragement opportunities for self-expression through drama and discussion.

We teach reading through synthetic phonics and use the ‘Read, Write Inc’ scheme, which children follow until they are ready to become independent and confident readers. There is a wide range of fiction and non-fiction available in classrooms and our library.

Every opportunity is taken to instil in the children a lasting love of reading and literature.

Our curriculum is topic-based and includes science, history, geography, art and design and music. Through the topics, we develop ICT skills using a range of resources. The emphasis is on development of skills and understanding, with inbuilt opportunities for children to make choices about what they are learning and how they learn. We aim to foster within the children a sense of curiosity, creativity and an awareness and understanding of their history and environment.

We have designated weeks in school where certain areas are given a priority and the children have opportunities to explore different subjects in more depth.

These weeks are very much valued by children, staff and parents. A well-established forest school in the grounds enables children to explore the individual subject areas in an outdoor environment.

Physical education is taught in school through a range of activities, including dance, gymnastics, athletics and games. We have a heated outdoor pool and the children all have swimming lessons; in addition, key stage two children have swimming lessons at a local leisure centre. The children are encouraged to develop the skills of fair play and teamwork. We arrange competitive events with other schools in the area.

At St Joseph’s we offer a range of school clubs which cater for a wide variety of abilities and interests. These include sports, drama, art and music.

We also have football and netball teams which practice and have matches after school. We aim to give children the chance to explore new skills and discover new talents.

In school we use Read Write Inc which is a comprehensive literacy programme designed to get children reading and writing quickly.  We use a host of other reading schemes such as Project X, Tree Tops, Oxford RT, Rapid Readers, Jelly and Bean, Rigby Stars.

When children join St Joseph’s School aged four, they follow a curriculum called Development Matters, where there is a strong emphasis on how we learn as well as what we learn. The characteristics of how we learn are playing and exploring, active learning and creativity and critical thinking. The seven key areas of learning and development are divided into prime and specific areas. The prime areas are personal, social and emotional education, physical development and communication and language. The specific areas are literacy, maths, understanding the world and expressive arts and design. It is a play based curriculum with a balance between child initiated and teacher-led learning. There is an emphasis on building self-esteem and encouraging children to become collaborative and motivated learners.

Mathematics at St Joseph’s School encourages every child to use and apply skills in a practical way, through investigation and problem-solving.

Mental skills and the ability to think clearly and logically are encouraged within the maths curriculum. We develop specific mathematical vocabulary and expect children to learn number facts and time tables, which gives them the skills to approach mathematics with confidence and enjoyment.

Much of our work is of a practical nature using concrete experiences, making maths meaningful. The framework is progressive and enables children to build on their skills as well as reinforcing and revisiting concepts.

Through everything we do at school, the children are encouraged to consider their relationships and responsibilities towards themselves and others.

We follow the ‘In the Beginning’ scheme, which has been approved by the Catholic bishops. We involve parents and carers in educating the children in personal relationships. We teach sex and relationships education and personal, social and health education within a framework which upholds our values as members of a Christian community and lays the foundations of our Catholic Faith.

Spanish or French are taught from year 2 to year 6. The programme introduces the children in how to converse in a foreign language alongside the literacy and culture of the language. We aim to instil both the confidence to ‘have a go’ at speaking French or Spanish and an enthusiasm for finding out about other languages and cultures.

Phonics

At St Joseph’s we teach phonics using a validated programme called Unlocking Letters and Sounds. We begin teaching phonics in the first full week of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. 

In Reception, children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4. 

In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check. 

In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery and any child who does not meet age related expectations in Year 1 will continue to receive support to close identified gaps. 

To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to catch up through bespoke 1-1 precision teaching, and segmenting and blending interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have impact. 

Supporting reading and phonics at home 

For home reading, children read books so that they can practise and apply reading skills that have been taught at school. Books are very closely matched to a child’s current phonics phase so that each child can achieve success in their reading.  

Please read with your child every day to develop their blending, decoding and fluency skills. We ask that you record this in their reading log book by writing a positive comment about your child’s reading. 

Phonics: How to pronounce pure sounds | Oxford Owl