The mental health and emotional well-being of our children is extremely important. At St Anthony’s, we endeavour to equip our children with the knowledge and skills necessary to be in charge of their own wellbeing. We do this through our Social Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) curriculum and regular circle times. A range of topics such as ‘New Beginnings’, ‘Getting on and Falling Out’, ‘Say No to Bullying’, ‘Going for Goals’, ‘Relationships’ and ‘Changes’ help pupils to build emotional resilience, show kindness and care for others and take personal responsibility for their actions. 

At St Anthony’s, children are taught to understand their emotions and encouraged to share concerns or worries that they have. Mental Health First Aiders and Emotional Literacy Support Assistants work collaboratively to teach children how to self-regulate and manage their complex feelings and experiences, by providing them with strategies to communicate their emotions and feelings in a safe, non-judgmental environment.  Our Nurture Room Provision provides a safe space for children to practise the strategies that they have been taught. 

Playground Buddies are trained by the Lead Midday Meals Supervisor to offer regular timetabled support to children who will benefit most. Additionally, St Anthony’s partnership with Professor Kathryn Riley and the Institute of Education (IOE) is important in creating an ongoing sense of belonging for pupils and staff alike.

'Belonging' is that sense of being somewhere where you can be confident that you will fit in, and feel safe in your identity. As schools are one of the few shared social institutions which can create a sense of belonging or exclusion, it's vital that they are places of welcome and belonging. Kathryn Riley, Professor of Urban Education, UCL Institute of Education (IOE)

St Anthony’s is a ‘belonging’ school where everyone is welcomed; this ethos of ‘belonging’ has a positive impact on the emotional health and well-being of our pupils, parent/carers and staff. Finally, our success as a learning institution can clearly be seen in the excellent academic results that our children achieve and their readiness as they transition to secondary school.

Overcoming Barriers to Learning

Many of the children at St Anthony’s speak English as an additional language and some of them speak 2 or 3 languages fluently. Some children are from a low socio-economic background and the school has recognised that vocabulary understanding and development needs to be a high priority.

St Anthony’s has developed a bespoke approach to the teaching of reading in KS2 (RAP) where there is a high emphasis on vocabulary development and understanding. This has its roots in the National Curriculum Content Domains for Reading.

We use a range of strategies to support vocabulary development and this is prominent in all subject areas.

Phonics and Approach to Reading

At St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School, we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to teach phonics from Reception through to Year Two. This structured and systematic approach ensures that all children develop strong phonics knowledge, enabling them to become confident and fluent readers.

Alongside the Little Wandle programme, we provide opportunities for children to develop early letter formation and writing skills. Cursive script is introduced from Reception, supporting children in their handwriting development as they acquire phonics knowledge.

Across Reception and Key Stage One, we use a structured reading scheme that aligns with Little Wandle, ensuring children have access to fully decodable books that match their phonics stage. These books allow children to apply their phonics learning and build fluency and confidence in reading.

Throughout the school, we continue to use Book Banding to ensure that children engage with books at an appropriate reading level. These books include those from Oxford University Press, Collins, and Pearson, as well as high-quality picture books and chapter books that provide both challenge and support as needed.

In Key Stage Two, pupils undertake a daily in-depth study of a high-quality text during the Reading Acceleration Program (RAP) session. Each year group explores a new text every half term, fostering a love of reading and ensuring children encounter a diverse range of literature.

Our approach to reading reflects our belief that children should engage with a variety of high-quality texts throughout their time at St Anthony’s and beyond.

What do Book Bands levels mean?

Reading books are graded in terms of challenge, by reading levels known as Book Bands.  Each Book Band has its own colour.

The information in the guide to levelled books gives an indication of the range of Book Band levels at which most children will be reading as they progress through primary school.
The information shows the progress of an ‘average’ band of children- but no individual child is ‘average’, so no child makes smooth progress precisely in this way.

Children tend to learn in fits and starts – periods of growth followed by periods of consolidation when their progress seems to halt for a while. The periods where you don’t see rapid progress may be worrying, especially after a ‘growth spurt’, but they are important as your child develops confidence in using and applying their newly acquired skills.

They also need to read a range of texts at each level i.e. non-fiction, poems, plays etc to get a breadth across genres. It is not a race to the end of the levels – more an exploratory journey. 

Cursive Handwriting at St. Anthony's

A fully joined cursive handwriting script is taught from the Early Years Foundation Stage; this means that the pen or pencil is not lifted at all from the beginning of a word to the end. The reasons for adopting this style are as follows:

It follows natural movement: