At Holy Trinity Primary School, we pride ourselves on building a busy community of readers and writers. Books, storytelling and drama are at the heart of our English curriculum. We aim to master the vital transcription skills of spelling, handwriting and sentence structure so that children are free to develop creativity and their identities as writers.

Our curriculum is rooted in high-quality literature. We are a ‘Power of Reading’ school, using approaches and carefully chosen texts selected by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). We believe that great writers are fluent and enthusiastic readers, and that immersing our pupils in rich, challenging and engaging texts is fundamental. We aim to lead our pupils on an exciting reading journey, so that by the end of Year 6 they leave confident to read fluently and with prosody, can talk confidently about their preferences, and use their reading to support and improve their writing. We value story time in all year groups as a protected part of the school day. We also maintain a well-resourced library and regularly review our book provision to reflect pupils’ voice by meeting their interests and needs.

We expect high standards in handwriting across the school. We believe this supports spelling and writing fluency, and we are aspirational about how work is presented. From Reception, children are taught to use an effective grip and to form letters correctly. Once this is mastered, letters are joined consistently, as modelled by adults.

Oracy is the fourth ‘R’ and underpins our whole curriculum. From ‘convince me’ in a mathematics lesson to debating in history, we teach children to learn to talk and to learn through talk. We believe that being confident speakers equips children with skills for life, and that developing the skills to explain, question, debate and disagree respectfully builds confidence and empowers learners.

Stratford-upon-Avon is our campus and, as we are fortunate to be so close to the Royal Shakespeare Company, we take every opportunity to work with them and to perform. Drama is used across our curriculum as a key teaching and learning strategy, and we love to perform plays and poems. We also have strong links with Warwick Books and the Stratford Literary Festival, and are lucky enough to have regular author visits which inspire and motivate our young writers.