At St Meryl, English is taught every day either as a subject in its own right or through other subjects such as history, geography etc.

Children are encouraged to speak clearly and to articulate sentences accurately.

Daily handwriting takes place across the school and phonics in the Early Years, Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2 as and when necessary.

Phonics:

At St Meryl we believe that good quality synthetic phonics teaching is essential in developing children’s reading and spelling skills. It should be taught by teachers who understand what good quality phonics teaching looks like and know how to effectively support any children who may be struggling in their understanding of phonics. We start teaching phonics from Nursery with the aim and expectation that they will be confident and fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One.

lick on the link below to find out more about how we teach phonics at St Meryl School:

Reading

Children are encouraged to read widely and to develop a love of books. In guided reading sessions they are taught how to read words on-sight but also to read for meaning and develop their skills of inference and deduction.

We have our own banded reading scheme and children work their through this until they are confident enough to be 'free readers.' All children take home library books to share with their parents in addition to any scheme reading books.

Children are taught the craft of writing and given opportunities to write at length and for longer periods of time as their writing ability develops.

The document below shows the units of work typically covered in English lessons across the school.

Writing

 At St Meryl, we take a structured and comprehensive approach to teaching writing, ensuring that pupils develop strong literacy skills from an early age. We follow the Essential Writing scheme of work across Years 1 to 6, which provides a clear progression of skills and knowledge. This scheme helps pupils build confidence in their writing by focusing on key areas such as vocabulary development, sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation. Each unit is carefully designed to engage pupils with high-quality texts, inspiring them to write for a variety of purposes and audiences. Writing is taught through a combination of modelled, shared, and independent writing activities, allowing pupils to develop their creativity while mastering essential writing techniques. We also incorporate opportunities for cross-curricular writing, ensuring pupils can apply their skills across different subjects. Regular assessment and feedback help us track progress and provide targeted support to ensure every child becomes a confident and capable writer.

The document below outlines the spellings taught in each Year group.