Pope Paul Primary
  • Home
  • The School
    • Admissions
    • British Values
    • Curriculum
      • RE
      • English
      • Maths
      • Science
      • Computing
      • History
      • Geography
      • Art
      • Music
      • Physical Education
      • Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE)
      • Design Technology
      • French
    • Inspection Reports
    • School Performance
    • Safeguarding
    • Staff
    • Governors
    • SEND
    • Statutory Information
      • Policies
      • Pupil Premium Grant
      • School Performance
      • Sports Premium Report
    • Vacancies
  • Parents
    • Supporting Your Child
    • Uniform
    • School Information
    • School Meals
    • Music Lessons
    • Community Links
    • Extended School
    • Remote Learning
    • Policies
    • PSHE
    • FOPPS
    • Fun Zone
  • Children
    • Choir
    • Reception
    • Year 1
    • Year 2
    • Year 3
    • Year 4
    • Year 5
    • Year 6
    • Wellbeing
  • Catholic Life & Mission
    • Prayer and Liturgy
      • Liturgical Calendar
      • Classroom Prayer
      • Whole-School Worship
      • Liturgical Celebrations
      • Sacramental Life
      • Liturgical Formation
      • Prayer Spaces
    • Leadership Groups
      • Liturgy Leaders
      • Laudato Si Group
      • Fairtrade Group
      • House Captains
    • Catholic Social Teaching
      • Rooted in Love
      • Building The Kingdom
    • House Saints
    • Yearly Faith Themes
      • Year of Apostles 2024/2025
      • Year of Diversity 2023/2024
      • Year of Pilgrimage 2022 – 2023
      • Our Year of Growth 2021/2022
      • Our Year Of Hope 2020/2021
      • Our Year Of The Word 2019/2020
    • The Common Good
  • Newsletters
  • What’s On
  • Academy Consultation
  • Contact
  • Menu
  • About Us

English

English Curriculum Overview

Intent

It is our intention that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become lifelong learners and linguists. We strive to ensure that all our pupils receive a well-rounded learning experience when reading, writing, speaking and listening which will equip them with the fundamental tools to achieve in our school and beyond, and ultimately make a positive difference to our world . It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination through our ambitious curriculum.

We recognise the importance of reading across the whole curriculum and its impact on the future success of pupils. Our pupils are taught to read confidently, fluently and with a good understanding. Pupils are encouraged to develop a habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information through daily practise and whole school activities. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and real texts are used to introduce topics across different subject areas including history, geography and science. Reading books are matched to each pupil’s phonic knowledge and reading ability.  The Herts progression of skills is used to ensure development across the whole school.

Pupils are encouraged to use the school and class libraries to widen their reading experience. Regular adult led story telling enables pupils to access literature that is beyond their own reading level; this includes shared reading with parents and carers who attend the weekly drop-in reading sessions in EYFS.

Phonics is taught through our own carefully planned systematic, synthetic program, using a multi-sensory approach. Pupils are encouraged to apply their phonic knowledge independently through opportunities in child initiated learning. This knowledge develops a firm foundation for future learning of spelling in KS2.

Throughout our curriculum pupils are given many opportunities to articulate their learning during the school day and to speak in front of different audiences including Parish Mass, Class assemblies, performances for parents and reporting to the governing body. HfL English planning is used to ensure a clear progression of skills building to clear end points at the end of each year.

Whole school writing projects promote this through a shared book focus. Planned first hand, real life experiences for all pupils enhance and inspire purposeful writing and equip our pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to achieve.

Implementation

All teachers have a good knowledge of the English curriculum. The English subject leaders ensure that teachers have a deep understanding of the sequence of learning and end points. Regular staff meeting time is allocated to updating knowledge and understanding of the curriculum. Best practice is shared and through pupil voice new initiatives are implemented.

Effective formative assessment allows pupils to embed and consolidate learning and to identify gaps and misconceptions. Clear direct feedback is provided through the marking policy; next steps for learning are shared and responded to. Teaching strategies are adapted in response to the needs of the individual learners. Reading and writing moderations take place half termly at school, local and county level, ensuring accurate and robust assessments.

Purposeful learning environments inspire all pupils; classroom books, apparatus, word banks and target sheets provide a wealth of support.

Impact

All pupils are well prepared for their next stage in education. They are confident pupils who have a life- long love of reading and writing. They are articulate linguists who can write for a range of purposes and value reading. Our pupils can express their views eloquently and enjoy speaking to a range of audiences. Pupils have the knowledge and skills they need to go on to destinations that meet their interests and aspirations.

World Book Day 2024 World Book Day 2024
EYFS_Building_Foundations_in_English EYFS_Building_Foundations_in_English
English Whole School Overview English Whole School Overview
Year 1 to 6 Writing End Points Year 1 to 6 Writing End Points
Years 1 to 6 Reading End Points Years 1 to 6 Reading End Points

Curriculum

  • English
  • Maths
  • Science
  • Computing
  • History
  • Geography
  • Art
  • Music
  • Physical Education
  • Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE)
  • Design Technology
  • French

Pope Paul News

  • Tuesday 13th MayMay 13, 2025 - 6:00 am
  • Year 5 – 09/05/25May 9, 2025 - 6:37 pm
  • Summer 1 Week 3May 9, 2025 - 4:30 pm
  • Year 1 Week Beginning 5.5.25May 9, 2025 - 4:20 pm

Useful Links

  • Statutory Information
  • What’s On
  • Gallery
  • Curriculum
  • Admissions

Payments and Associations

How To Find Us

Headteacher: Liz Heymoz

Baker Street,
Potters Bar,
Hertfordshire
EN6 2ES
Tel: 01707 659755
Fax: 01707 665431
Email: admin@popepaul.herts.sch.uk
Proudly built by Lemongrass Media
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds: