At Tickhill St. Mary’s C of E Primary and Nursery School, we aim to enable pupils to become confident and skilled communicators. Our English curriculum plays a vital role in this, fostering a strong enjoyment of reading, writing, and discussion.

Our Core Values provide the foundation upon which we have built our curriculum offer at Tickhill St. Mary’s. Our English curriculum is underpinned by these values in the following ways:

Being Resilient

• Enabling pupils to hold balanced and informed conversations about a wide range of literary resources, including books for information and stories for pleasure.
• Encouraging the courage to challenge what they read and to question thoughtfully.
• Developing the ability to write for a variety of purposes and audiences, adapting their writing according to formality and context.

Being Curious

• Gaining knowledge and understanding of diverse author perspectives and worldviews, appreciating diversity, continuity, and change within their reading.
• Engaging with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.

Being Active Members of Our Community

• Enhancing our English curriculum through links with the local faith community and St Mary’s Parish Church by participating in services and events.
• Opportunities include performative speech, scriptwriting, and creating advertisements for community events.

Being Respectful

• Encouraging all children to form positive relationships and respect people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
• Respecting the intentions and choices behind non-fiction writing and discussing their rationale.
• Supporting children to articulate their ideas confidently and respectfully.
• Fostering an appreciation for books and other literary forms.

Being Accountable

• Developing confident readers and writers who think and act independently.
• Exploring their own religious, spiritual, and philosophical ways of living, believing, and thinking.

Beyond the Subject

At St Mary’s, we believe a high-quality English curriculum should nurture children’s enjoyment of reading, writing, and discussion. English is taught not only through discrete lessons but is embedded at the heart of our whole curriculum. We strive to inspire a reading culture in school by promoting a genuine love of reading for all children through the use of high-quality texts, vocabulary-rich learning environments, and ensuring curriculum expectations and progression of skills are met.

We recognise the importance of fostering a culture where children take pride in their writing, write clearly and accurately, and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We aim to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, using discussion to communicate and deepen their learning. We believe that a secure foundation in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will equip our children with the tools they need to participate fully as members of society.