SPIRITUAL

The Catholic life of the school is built upon developing the spiritual awareness in each and every person in the school. It is enriched by weekly assemblies, specific R.E. lessons as well as timetabled meditation and reflection.

It is deepened by:

Religious Education is taught throughout the school using the 'Come and See' programme.

“Come and See” is an invitation and a promise of life for everyone and is open to all. In response to the question ‘Where do you live?’, Jesus invited his disciples to ‘Come and See.’ They went with Jesus ‘and spent the rest of that day with him.’

We recognise that all children are at different stages in their journey of faith; for some children RE is catechesis and part of their formation in the faith. Those who receive the invitation to 'Come and see’ may also offer it to others. In the same invitation we remember that for some of our children RE will be evangelisation, the first opportunity to hear the good news. For more information on the programme please click here.

Religious Education is a core subject of the curriculum for Catholic Schools and as such teaching and learning in RE makes up 10% of curriculum time. As such it is taught rigorously with all the same expectations as other core subjects whilst maintaining a creative element and encouraging children to question and think at a high level.

What do the children learn?

Each term pupils study three topics, each lasting four weeks and following a common theme across the school. As the children move through the school this theme is developed further, appropriate to the pupils age and stage of learning. Please see table below for more information.

Please find below some of the resources we use with the children.

'Come and See' Curriculum Review & Content 

Full Range of Regular Prayers

Inspection Report of Denominational Character and Religious Education - March 2018

Using effective planning and teaching, we aim to develop and extend pupils' knowledge and understanding of all mathematical concepts.

Maths learning at St. Anthony's strives to create a learning environment in which our children can confidently learn and achieve, independently, to the best of their ability. Our maths curriculum aims to provide children with the opportunity to develop a curiosity for maths, develop enjoyment and passion for the subject, allowing them to understand the world around them through mathematical reasoning.

A positive attitude to maths learning is encouraged by presenting it in an interesting and enjoyable way, allowing the children to actively participate in the learning process, thus creating a sense of achievement and confidence. We have a strong emphasis on the development of mental arithmetic and giving opportunities for our children to use and apply mathematics in real life situations.

Maths is taught through a daily Numeracy lesson which follows the principles of the Primary curriculum and id divided up into 7 strands:

1. Using and applying

2. Counting and understanding number

3. Knowing and using number facts

4. Calculating

5. Understanding shape

6. Measuring

7. Handling data

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which children need to be able to move fluently between mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are organised into distinct areas, but pupils will make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They will also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress will always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will consolidate their understanding, including additional practice, before moving on.

Writing is an important tool for learning and plays a vital role in all areas of the curriculum.

For children to become good writers they must enjoy what they are writing about. To help support this we use a range of books and resources to help engage the children and capture their imagination. We often set the scene in our classes using pictures, music and drama to evoke the atmosphere and get them excited about what they are writing about. The children are given many opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences. We aim for a high standard of presentation, and the children follow a cursive style of handwriting throughout key stage 2. 

Implementation

At St Anthony's we have adopted ‘The Write Stuff’ by Jane Constantine to bring clarity and consistency to the mechanics of writing and to enable our children to write effectively and coherently. As a school, all children from Year 1 to Year 6 learn to write through the Write Stuff approach, with Reception classes introducing this approach in the summer term. This approach was developed by teacher and leading English consultant, Jane Considine. It is a fun, creative and rigorous approach to develop children’s writing. This approach allows children to apply basic skills, vocabulary and grammar knowledge to write effective sentences, which are full of impact and keep the reader interested.

In The Write Stuff approach to writing, the children explore high level, rich vocabulary and are taught grammar in context through different writing lenses on the Writing Rainbow. There are three lenses used to support children with their writing:

Fantastics – ideas for writing
Grammaristics – tools for writing
Boomtastics – writing techniques

The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons.

As part of the teaching sequence, teachers plan experience days; sentence stacking lessons and independent writing sequences. Experience days immerse children in experiences linked to their writing and drench them in vocabulary linked to the lenses in ‘The Writing Rainbow’. From the experience days, children take part in the sentence stacking lessons. Sentence stacking lessons focus on writing three sentences with focuses on lenses of the rainbow.

‘The Write Stuff’ follows a method called ‘Sentence Stacking’ which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.

An individual lesson is based on one plot point from the text, broken in to three learning chunks:

• 1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
• 2. Model section – the teacher models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
• 3. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the teacher’s model.

This part of the unit is heavily scaffolded with lots of teacher input and modelling of vocabulary use, sentence construction and use of grammar with reference to the 3 writing lenses.

During the initiate section children ‘chot’ (chat and jot) down their ideas from stimulating resources, such as pictures, music and drama. The children are encouraged to use ‘kind calling out’ where they call out examples of vocabulary, adverbs, onomatopoeia etc.

During the Model section the teacher prepares children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar and techniques of writing taken from the writing rainbow.
In the Enable section pupils write their own sentences, taking the opportunity to deepen the moment. ‘Deepen the Moment’ is where children are challenged to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.
Following the sentence stacking, children are given the opportunity to show what they have learnt by planning and writing their own independent piece of writing. After they have written their independent piece, their work is marked by the class teacher who identifies different aspects of their written piece to be edited. There are 3 elements to the editing;

E1 Edit: The Revise

Edit Type 1: These are often ‘little’ adjustments or changes and tend to fall into one of these categories; Spellings Missing words or Punctuation

E2 Edit: The Rewrite

Edit Type 2: Children are asked to re-write a sentence if it doesn’t make sense, could be restructured or generally improved.

E3 Edit: The Reimagine

Edit Type 3: This is when a writer wants to add more sentences to develop an idea further. For this the children are shown how to use ‘editing flaps’.
Editing flaps are extra pieces of paper that stick onto their writing and show the additional sentences added into their work.

The Write Stuff provides a balance of narrative, non-fiction and poetry writing throughout each term.

Impact

Having followed the Write Stuff approach to developing their writing skills children should be able to

• write for a range of purposes including diary entries, persuasive letters, stories, poems and recounts to name but a few.
• use their vast knowledge of vocabulary to excite, inform or entertain the reader.
• understand a range of punctuation and the effect it can have on the reader in both writing and reading.
• understand and be able to use a range of grammatical devices.
• understand the various sentence types that can be used to support different genres.
• spell accurately using their phonetic knowledge and apply spelling rules.
• to speak clearly, fluently and coherently, to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions.
• be prepared for when they move on from St. Anthony’s to continue their education.

Please see below our writing pathways

Grammaristics Progression Across School

English/Progression-through-Genres-1-2.pdf

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-EYFS-Tracker-Statutory-Framework-for-the-Early-Years-Foundation-Stage.pdf

Foundation Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-1.pdf

Year 1 Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-2.pdf

Year 2 Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-3.pdf

Year 3 Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-4.pdf

Year 4 Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-5.pdf

Year 5 Performance of Writing Framework POW

English/Jane-Considines-English-Unit-Plan-Tracker-Year-6.pdf

Year 6 Performance of Writing Framework POW

A reading journey begins with ‘learning to read’ & moves on into ‘reading to learn’.

Reading Intent

Reading is fundamental in our modern society and shapes us as critical thinkers, learners and questioning citizens. Learning to read and reading to learn is the key to unlocking all areas of the curriculum and is the foundation for the future educational success for all children.  Reading feeds the imagination and opens up to a world of wonder and joy. We strive for all of our children at St Anthony's to discover the magic in reading, develop an appreciation for and love of reading and instil the habit of reading for pleasure. 

Reading Implementation

We provide a thriving reading culture for all children in our school.  Through effective teaching and intervention, children are equipped with the essential skills to ensure that they become competent fluent readers.  Beginning their reading journey with phonics in Early Years and Key Stage 1, using Little Wandle, provides children with a direct route to becoming novice readers.  They subsequently move to whole class reading lessons that focus on the development of vocabulary, comprehension skills and the immersion in a wide range of high-quality texts. These lessons also instil excitement and pleasure in reading.  This enjoyment in reading is further demonstrated by reading aloud (class readers) and various other strategies such as regular opportunities for rich book talk, visits from authors to inspire reading, our inviting library and children regularly witnessing their teachers as readers.

Reading VIPERS is our way of supporting children with their reading comprehension skills. All children will be working on VIPERS during class reading, whether it is reading as a class, in a small group, or one-to-one with an adult. It would be fantastic if parents could also refer to VIPERS when they listen to their child read at home. 

Up to the end of Year 2, the 'S' stands for 'Sequence'. Once children move into Year 3, the 'S' stands for 'Summarise', which is a more demanding skill.

If we ensure that children are competent in all of these reading skills, we are covering all of the National Curriculum requirements and enabling them to be strong, confident readers. This acronym is just a great way of helping children and parents to remember what these vital skills are.

 Question Openers

VIPERS can be used on any text that a child is reading, as well as on pictures, picture books and films! When any adult is listening to a child read, all they have to do is think of questions about the book/picture/film that cover all of the VIPERS, and there are great examples below of how you can create your own questions using the following question openers. In conjunction with VIPERS, we use SOLO answer stems to support the children's answer responses, to enable them to answer questions making links to prior knowledge and understanding at a higher multi-structural or extended abstract level. 

Reading VIPERS is our way of supporting children with their reading comprehension skills. All children will be working on VIPERS during class reading, whether it is reading as a class, in a small group, or one-to-one with an adult. It would be fantastic if parents could also refer to VIPERS when they listen to their child read at home.

Reading Impact

Reading is a crucial component to children’s future educational success and achievements in life.  Children at St Anthony’s are improving in their performance in statutory tests in both phonics and reading, though more importantly, they leave us as competent fluent readers, who can both read to learn and read for pleasure, in order to offer them the best possible opportunities in life.  We strive to ensure that our children also leave us as ‘forever readers’ who are able to capture the magic of reading which will, in turn, develop their self-esteem and have a direct, positive impact on their future wellbeing.

Take a look at the following website for more exciting books for children for all year groups www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/100-best-books

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-EYFS.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y1.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y2.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y3.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y4.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y5.docx

English/Reading/Reading-Long-Term-Planning-Y6.docx

Reading for Purpose Rubric

Vipers KS1 Question Stems

Vipers KS2 Question Stems

Solo Stems

Writing in your child's reading record

Supporting your child's reading at home

Top tips for encouraging reading at home

Recommended Reading Books

Bookworm

Reading Pathway

"Children need to be able to HEAR a whole word and SAY every sound that they HEAR."

St. Anthony’s School and Nursery follows the ‘Little Wandle’ programme when teaching and learning phonics. The programme was produced by the DFE which teaches the children that sounds and letters have a relationship, concentrating on activities to promote speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending. This starts during the Early Years Foundation Stage, with the aim of producing fluent readers by the time they leave Year 2.

Phonics is taught through six phases starting with phase one and continues through the school until each child has successfully completed all six phases, with children being assessed at the end of each phase.

The Phonics Screening Test

The Phonics Screening Check is an assessment at the end of Year 1 to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonetic decoding to an appropriate standard. It enables schools to identify children who need additional help, so ensure they are given support to improve their reading skills. Children who do not 'pass' the check in Year 1 are able to retake it in Year 2.

It is a Statutory Requirement to carry out the screening check. The check is a short, simple screening check which consists of a list of 40 words and pseudo words (non-words), which the child reads one-to-one with their class teacher. For more information please click on the link below.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/at-school/primary-school-assessment-tests/year-1-phonics-screening-check/