Literacy at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
“To speak of literacy is to speak of equipping children with the tools they need to live intelligent, creative, and compassionate lives.”
– Inspired by Danny Glover, actor and literacy advocate
Curriculum Intent
At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Trust, we believe that literacy is at the heart of learning. It empowers children to express themselves, understand the world, and connect with others. Rooted in our Catholic values and high expectations for all, our approach to literacy is rich, inclusive, and purposeful, designed to meet the needs of every learner.
We recognise that spoken language underpins all learning and development. From the very start, we nurture talk through storytelling, role-play, and meaningful conversation. As children grow, they learn to express themselves confidently through drama, presentations, and debate. Our classrooms are talk-rich environments where reasoning, reflection, and expression are actively taught and celebrated.
Implementation
EYFS and Key Stage 1: Laying the Foundations
Our children learn to read through a systematic and rigorous phonics programme using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, supported by the Book Band reading system to ensure fluency and progression. From Nursery to Year 2, we promote a love of reading through high-quality texts, guided and shared reading, and daily storytelling. Every classroom has a vibrant book corner, and our school library offers a wide range of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to support both learning and reading for pleasure.
As children develop, we teach them to write with both creativity and accuracy. Writing is inspired by cross-curricular topics, carefully chosen texts, and meaningful events, always with an emphasis on audience, purpose, and vocabulary. Children are taught to use accurate spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and they learn our school script to develop clear, fluent handwriting.
We believe in encouraging children to become independent, resilient learners who are not afraid to take risks in their reading and writing. We explicitly teach skills such as editing, reasoning, and reflection, so that children can achieve mastery through depth of understanding, not just surface accuracy.
Key Stage 2: Building Skills and Confidence
Literacy lies at the heart of our curriculum, enabling children to access knowledge, express themselves with clarity and creativity, and develop as thoughtful, articulate individuals.
Through the CUSP curriculum for reading and writing, we provide a carefully sequenced and ambitious programme that ensures all pupils develop fluency, accuracy and a deep understanding of language. Reading is taught as a priority, with rich and diverse texts at the core, enabling children to foster a love of literature while building the knowledge and vocabulary to succeed across the curriculum. Writing is taught with equal rigour, with pupils immersed in high-quality models before applying skills with increasing independence, precision and creativity.
We are committed to ensuring every child becomes a confident reader and writer. For some, this requires carefully targeted support; for all, it involves challenge, high expectations and the belief that every child can achieve. Our Catholic ethos underpins our Literacy curriculum, nurturing a culture of respect, empathy and reflection, so that pupils learn not only to master the mechanics of language but also to use it with purpose, integrity and compassion.
💬 Speaking and listening
In our linguistically and culturally diverse community, we place language development at the centre of our curriculum. We celebrate all children’s voices and backgrounds, ensuring that English language learning is well supported and embedded across the curriculum. We also work in close partnership with parents and carers to foster a love of books and storytelling at home. This is reinforced by phonic and reading workshops for parents.
By the time children leave St Mary’s, they are equipped not only with the literacy skills expected in the National Curriculum, but with a lifelong love of language, communication, and learning. They leave us ready to thrive — as articulate, creative, and compassionate individuals, grounded in faith and confident in their voice.
Inclusion
At St Mary’s Catholic Primary Schools Trust we are unapologetically inclusive in how we design and deliver our English curriculum. We believe every child, regardless of background, language, ability or need, should not just access literacy but thrive in it. Inclusion in English isn’t an add-on; it’s baked in at every stage so that all children feel seen, valued and equipped to communicate with confidence and purpose.
We know pupils come with a wide range of starting points in language, literacy and communication. Our curriculum builds on these diverse strengths by:
• Valuing every voice – we celebrate all linguistic and cultural backgrounds and ensure classroom talk, reading materials and writing tasks reflect the rich diversity of our community and the wider world.
• Removing barriers to learning – through carefully differentiated teaching, scaffolded support, targeted catch-up and precise, timely interventions, children with SEND, EAL needs or other learning challenges are supported to access the full English curriculum.
• High expectations for all – we do not lower standards; we adapt our pedagogy so all pupils can meet them. Quality first teaching, adjustable texts and purposeful oracy strategies ensure every learner can participate meaningfully in reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• Accessible resources and approaches – from varied text types and scaffolded writing frames to visual supports and collaborative talk structures, we embed flexible learning pathways so pupils can express themselves and deepen their comprehension.
• Partnership with families and specialists – close working with parents, carers and colleagues including SENDCo, EAL lead and external professionals ensures personalised support that follows the child across school and home.
This inclusive intent ensures that every child leaves St Mary’s not only literate but confident in using language to express their identity, engage with others and contribute positively to our Catholic community and wider society.
Impact
By the time they leave St Mary’s, our pupils are equipped with the literacy skills to thrive at secondary school and beyond, and the confidence to use their voices to make a positive difference in the world.