ENGLISH

At St. Catherine’s, our English curriculum is designed to foster a love for both writing and reading, ensuring a well-rounded literacy education for all students.

Writing Curriculum: Our writing program is structured around Jane Considine’s “The Write Stuff,” supplemented by engaging units from Literacy Shed. The curriculum is divided into four key strands: Writing to Entertain (narratives, poetry, etc.), Writing to Inform (instructions, reports, etc.), Writing to Persuade (adverts, letters, etc.), and Writing to Discuss (introduced from Year 4 onwards). These strands are thoughtfully distributed throughout the academic year to provide a balanced and comprehensive learning experience. Lessons are built around “sentence stacking” sessions, where students learn the intricacies of grammar and sentence structure. Additionally, ‘experience days’ offer hands-on activities that inspire and enrich students’ writing. Non-fiction units begin with a ‘jigsaw lesson,’ helping students understand the structure and features of various text types.

Reading Curriculum: Our reading program ensures comprehensive development across the Primary phase. Key components include:

• Daily phonics lessons for pupils in Reception and KS1.

• Reactive daily intervention phonics lessons for Reception and KS1.

• Weekly phonics intervention sessions for KS2 pupils who did not pass the phonics screen check.

• Daily class reading sessions to foster a love for reading.

• Weekly reading sessions either 1-1 or in small groups.

• Daily Guided Reading (VIPERS) lessons for all KS2 classes and for children who have completed phonics.

• Weekly reading books sent home, matched to pupil ability.

• Access to comprehensive school and class libraries for pupils to choose books and develop a love of reading.

Together, our writing and reading programs at St. Catherine’s aim to cultivate proficient, enthusiastic, and confident young readers and writers.

LEXIA LEARNING:

The Lexia Reading programme is an excellent resource which we use in school to support reading development for pupils of all ages. 

Research has shown that pupils using Lexia perform better in reading assessments and that pupils in Early Years, those learning English and those at risk of falling behind in their reading skills benefit most from using the software. Pupils using the resource either at home or at school for 3 x 20 minute sessions per week make good progress.

To access at home you need to:-
Type My Lexia Core5 into your search engine. 

• Click link, this will open Lexia Core5 page. 

• In top right hand corner click product login in drop down click Core5. 

• Click "you are a student2, it will ask for e-mail enter
  lexia@stcatherines.newcastle.sch.uk

• Your child will then log in using their own log in.