ST DUNSTAN'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL
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English

Captivating a deep-rooted love for the English language, both in its written and spoken forms. 
Writing Lead: Mrs Baker
Reading Lead: Miss Anderson
​Phonics Lead: Miss Swapp
Through our rich English curriculum, the staff are committed to empowering our pupils to become confident, independent and effective speakers, listeners, readers and writers.​

Reading

​Reading for pleasure is a priority throughout our school and along with the fantastic support at home, from the parents and carers, we are dedicated to encouraging our pupils to develop their own identity as readers, to become excited about selecting their own books based on their preferences and interests, to become inquisitive and ask questions about what they read and to use reading as a means of realising that the world around them is full of new, exciting and endless possibilities.  All pupils at St. Dunstan’s have access to high-quality and engaging class libraries, where they are exposed to a wide and diverse range of books, authors and styles of texts.
 
Guided reading at St Dunstan’s focuses strongly on modelling and teaching the essential skills children require in order to become successful readers. These skills are taught through a variety of high-quality extracts and texts, where the children explore characters, settings, language and authorial intent. Often, our inspiring guided reading programme links to the year group’s topic, such as Geography, History and Science topics, however, each year group will also have opportunities to carry out author studies, explore songs from musicals, appreciate children’s classics, read and perform poetry, enjoy picture books and much more - exposing them to over 600 great authors.

Writing

We are a school that adopts The Write Stuff approach to writing. The Write Stuff is not a scheme, it is a way to liberate the children so that they have a complete set of tools and structures that can be applied to their writing in all contexts. The system arms both teachers and pupils with the knowledge and understating of what to write and how to write. Grammar, writing techniques and ideas are embedded in every single lesson, and revisited again and again to ensure that pupils become confident and adept writers.

Writing produced by the children in each class is linked to their topic and is rooted in a high quality text that they read as a whole class. This helps to foster a deeper understanding of the topic and exposes pupils to different genres and authors, encouraging them to empathise with characters and express themselves creatively and imaginatively.

By doing this, we can encourage pupils to become excited about writing for a range of purposes and audiences. As always, expectations of the children remains high throughout the school, and all achievements in writing, effort, creativity and presentation, are celebrated inside and outside of the classroom, including displaying work regularly on our school’s Writing Wall.

Speaking and Listening

​Through our engaging and exciting curriculum, there are many opportunities for children to develop their ability to use language in order to communicate their ideas, views and feelings in a variety of different ways, including enabling children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively. We aim to provide a language-rich environment that is stimulating and characterised by high expectations of success.

Click the links below for resources to use at home and more information:

reading for pleasure
phonics
Grammar Guides
spellings
handwriting

St. Dunstan's Catholic School, Drayton Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7LP
Tel: 0121 464 4648   Fax: 0121 464 4028
Mrs Gilbride (School Business Manager): enquiry@stdunstans.bham.sch.uk
Website by ​Gabriel Media Limited
Picture
  • Home
  • School Diary
  • Our School
    • Staff >
      • Teaching Staff
      • Support Staff
      • Admin & Premises Staff
      • Parent Support CoOrdinator
      • SENDCo
    • Safeguarding >
      • Designated Safeguarding Leads
      • Pupil Wellbeing
      • Safeguarding & PREVENT
      • Recruitment & Visitors
      • E-Safety >
        • At School
        • Safer Internet Day 2021
        • Help & Advice
        • Social Media and Gaming
    • Special Educational Needs
    • Governing Body >
      • Governing Body Information
      • Parent Governor Election >
        • Vacancy November 2022
    • Policies
    • External Inspections & Data
    • Pupil Premium
    • GDPR
    • COVID-19 >
      • Letters & Information
    • P.E and Sports Premium
    • School Council
    • British Values
    • Live Simply
    • Walk to School
    • Gallery >
      • Virtual Nativity
      • World Book Day, 2020
      • Year 6 Retreat, 2020
      • Inspire for Year 6 Confirmandi Children
      • Y4 Residential 2019
      • Stem Club visit The Big Bang Fair, 2019
      • Year 3 Lickey Hills, 2019
      • City Kitchen
      • Anker Wood, 2019
      • World Book Day, 2019
      • Year 3's Harry Potter Day, 2019
      • PGL, November 2019
    • Friends Of St Dunstan's
    • Vacancies
  • Parent Zone
    • Prospective Parents >
      • Admissions
      • The Orchard Club
      • School Tour
      • School Meals & Drinks Information
    • Term Dates
    • School Letters & Newsletters
    • Coronavirus Information
    • MarvellousMe App
    • School Gateway
    • Extra Curricular Clubs & Trips
    • School Meals
    • Parents Evening Booking
    • Forms For Parents
    • School Uniform
    • General
    • Attendance
    • Starting School
  • Catholic Life
    • Prayer and Collective Worship
    • RE Curriculum
    • School of Sanctuary
    • Faith In the City
    • Charitable Outreach and Vocations
    • Chaplaincy Team
    • Saint Dunstan
    • Virtues
    • Ten:Ten Parent Newsletters
    • Our School Saints
    • Our Parish
    • Sacraments
    • Christmas 2021
  • OUR CURRICULUM
    • Our Early Years Curriculum
    • Curriculum subjects >
      • English >
        • Writing
        • Reading
        • Phonics
        • Grammar Guides
        • Spellings
        • Handwriting
      • Maths >
        • Times Tables
      • Science >
        • Awards
      • RSHE
      • Humanities
      • The Arts
      • PE
      • Computing >
        • iPads and Apps
      • MFL
      • Music
    • Curriculum Maps >
      • Early Years
      • Key Stage 1
      • Key Stage 2
    • Homework
  • Contact