At St Luke's Halsall CE Primary School we believe that English has a pre-eminent place not only in education but also in society.  English teaches us to speak and write fluently so that we can communicate our ideas and emotions to others, and through developing our reading and listening, we can communicate effectively with others. Through reading in particular, we have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables us  to acquire knowledge and to build on what we already know. We believe that all the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society.

To see what we study in more detail , please have a look at the National Curriculum for English.

At St Luke's Halsall we follow 'Jolly Phonics' (systematic synthetic phonics) programme to teach Phonics. We start in Nursery by supporting the children to develop their listening and speaking skills and then to hear and sequence either environmental, instrumental or voice sounds. This gives them the foundation ready to sequence letter sounds. In Reception, we move on to the Jolly Phonics programme and support the children to learn letter sounds and how to segment and blend to be able to read and write.

Next, in Year One we move on to Jolly Grammar, teaching key essential grammar rules, helping children bring diversity to their writing and improve their spelling in a structured way.

This guide is published by Jolly Phonics to support staff and parents when teaching children to read. At St Luke’s Halsall, we do not follow Jolly Grammar.