English

At St Maxentius, we give our children the very best. Through a supportive and purposeful curriculum, linked with National Curriculum objectives, we strive to ensure that all our pupils are able to succeed and find their unique talents and strengths. Our staff are committed to develop in each pupil, a love of learning, whilst developing the skills and values to support their all-round development.

Phonics

At St Maxentius we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revisedprogression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

Read our policy

Reading

At St Maxentius Church of England Primary School teachers are determined every pupil will learn to read and become confident, independent readers with high levels of enjoyment, understanding and comprehension. The teaching of reading focuses on developing word reading (decoding) and comprehension (both listening and reading) and both of these skills are essential. School follows the National Curriculum for all pupils, however it is adapted when necessary for pupils with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), to ensure all children develop their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence.

Writing

At St Maxentius, we believe that the mastery of written language is one of the most powerful gifts that we can provide to our children. We believe that writing should be purposeful, rich and enjoyable for all. Writing is delivered through an exciting and engaging curriculum which is taught from Reception to Year 6. As the National Curriculum for writing sets out, children should learn about transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).
In Key Stage 1 and 2 writing is taught through the use of high quality texts and a recognised teaching sequence. Quality texts provide a stimulus for all children to develop their writing across different text types.