English

Our Goal:

We aim to nurture every student to become a competent, confident, empathetic communicator with discernment in thought, creativity, and clarity in expression.

Our School-based Programmes:

1. Reading

The Read@PHPPS programme aims to nurture the love of reading in our students. We provide students with exposure to a wide variety of genres and teach them skills to become avid and proficient readers.

1a. In-house Reading Programme:

Objectives:

To expose students to different genres.
To ensure comprehension of text read through follow-up activities.

Resources Used:

Rigby Readers (P1 & P2)
iKnowledge & Storytime (P3)
What’s Up! Newspaper (P4 to P6)
STELLAR Extensive Readers (P1 to P6)

1b. Extensive reading prog:

Objectives:

To nurture a habit of reading in the students.
To expose students to a variety of genres.

Resources Used:

Leisure Reading booklet (P1) – collection of short stories, riddles, poems and jokes.
NLB’s Reading Journal (P1 to P6) – a list of suggested reads by NLB which are tagged to the themes of STELLAR readers.
Suggested list of books by genres (P3 & P6) – a list of suggested books categorised by genres.
Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) Week, where activities related to reading such as Readers’ Theatre and Book Characters Parade are conducted to encourage students to read widely.

Book sharing during DEAR Week

Enjoying a good book

Playing with language games!

Students dressed up as various book characters!

Even teachers dress up as book characters during DEAR Week!

1c. Critical Reading Prog: Literature prog

Objectives:

To allow students to engage with a longer text
Expose students to good literary texts
Learn storytelling techniques used by writers
Develop language skills through drama activities

Resources Focus Areas:

LEVEL	LITERATURE TEXT	AREA OF FOCUS
P3	Frindle	Plot Development
P4	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Characterisation & Moral Reasoning
P5	Wonder	Exploration of themes: a) Identity Differences b) Empathy & Kindness c) Family & Friendships

2. Skills-based programmes

Throughout their six years in PHPPS, students are explicitly taught the 4 macro language skills. They are also given various opportunities to apply what they have learned, thus making the learning process a joyful and meaningful one. Our EL skills-based programmes (eg. Oral & Writing packages) focus not only on the learning of a language skill but on applying it for a purpose.

2a. Writing:

Levels	Objectives
P1 - P2	Explicitly teach sentence structures Build sentences from words to sentences Expand a topic sentence to a paragraph Narrative structure – introduction, body and conclusion
P3 - P4	Reinforce the narrative structure – introduction, body and conclusion Build content (ideas) and vocabulary using Show not Tell and Topic Blast strategies
P5 - P6	Deepen understanding of the narrative structure – 5 Elements of a narrative Teach strategies to hook a reader (eg. Story starters) Teach strategies to enhance characterisation (eg TALES strategy, Character Driven Story [CDS]) Teach strategies to expand the plot (eg 3Cs, 3Ss strategies)

3. Harnessing ICT in EL learning

Learning is fun and engaging with the help of technology. At PHPPS, teachers harness ICT to facilitate learning and make English language learning an engaging experience. Eg, Snorkl for oral recording, Padlet for collaborative pair/group work, Wordwall for language games.

Having fun learning with ICT tools!

4. Applied Learning Programme (ALP):

The focus of the ALP named C3 (competent, confident communicator) was on communication. The objective was to equip every student with the language skills to communicate confidently and effectively. Since its implementation, we have witnessed more and more students becoming more confident and competent in their oral presentations to the school population. We then did a major review in 2023 and decided to rename the ALP to Voices@ PHPPS in 2024, with the renewed objective of developing students to have effective and empathetic voices expressed through multiple modes. This change signals a shift in focus. We are not just equipping the students with the essential language skills for communication, but we want them to apply these skills to have a voice to advocate for a cause.

Voices @ PHPPS Lessons
Lessons for Voices @ PHPPS are twofold, tackling two key sets of skills in communication: oracy and writing.

Oracy

Voices @ PHPPS lessons were crafted for each level to explicitly teach oral presentation skills in a progressive manner. In 2025, we crafted a series of EL and CL lessons to teach Tang poems and rhyming poems to P1 and P2 students. These lessons aimed to heighten their awareness of the articulation of sounds & words and how to recite with proper articulation & appropriate expression. This culminated in a short individual and group task for P1 and P2 respectively, in which students needed to record their recitation of the poem applying the different speech skills. In 2026, this will culminate in a level-wide Poetry Slam to showcase the speech skills they have learnt.

For the P3 & 4 students, the focus was on stating a personal opinion based on the Literature book they were reading. Lessons focused on equipping them with strategies and skills to effectively convey their point of view based on the context of the Literature texts. This included the introduction of a basic speech structure, so that students can present their points of view in an organised and persuasive manner.

For the P5 & 6 students, we added the element of advocacy in their oral presentations to tie in with their VIA projects. In presenting their VIA projects, the students must take into consideration the purpose, audience & context and rally their audience with a call to action. Each of these lessons and activities provided opportunities for applying the communication skills taught in authentic presentation contexts.

P5s creating awareness of reducing plastic wastage.

P6s advocating for dementia patients and how to support them.

In 2026, we embarked on a new SPEAK framework to support students as they prepare to speak in front of different audiences. This was included in a newly rolled-out lesson package to support students as they prepare for emcee duties or pre-assembly sharings.

Speak Posters for Primary 1 & 2

Speak Posters for the middle (P3 & P4) and upper (P5 & P6) blocks.

Writing

Our Voices publication

Our Voices is a bilingual publication of students’ writings in various forms. This platform is to enable students to express their personal voice through different text types in both languages. These writings could take the form of a poem, a short story, a comic strip, etc. This is a platform for the students to communicate their views & thoughts in written form in both EL & CL. The topic for the 2025 Our Voices publication was tied to the school’s theme of Zestful in Learning, which extends to the learning dispositions that the school aims to develop in students. The students reflected on the learning experiences they have been through in the year and expressed their opinions and shared their key learning. Students’ creativity was evident in how they explored different genres and text types. They also demonstrated their artistic talent by drawing out their stories in a comic strip.

Voices @ PHPPS Writing Lessons:

Mirroring the progressive introduction of different oracy skills, the Voices @ PHPPS Writing lessons on SLS focused on exposing students to different forms of writing beyond the curriculum expectation of narrative writing, allowing for more creativity to express their learning and experiences in school. Writings from these lessons are then published in the PHPPS Chronicles.

Level Block	Focus	Overall Objectives	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4
Lower	Exploring personal voice using different forms of writing	Introduction to 3 types of writing (across the two years), focusing on expressing observations & feelings	Objective: Exploring different poetry (Acrostic, Rhyming)	Objective: Reflecting on experiences through writing	Objective: Writing a short descriptive paragraph using “I see, I think, I wonder”.	Objective: Writing a short “fable” - moral story (with a lesson learnt)
Middle	Finding and expressing personal voice	Learning to share about events in an elaborated manner and in sequence (Use 5W1H)	Objective: Reflecting on experiences through writing (Using 5W1H)	Objective: Recounting an event with creative descriptions	Objective: Crafting a persuasive paragraph about an event	Objective: Crafting a persuasive email to influence an opinion
Upper	Using your voice to share with others & about others	Catering to PAC when writing Raising awareness about events, causes	Objective: Writing a recount/structuring an opinion	Objective(s): Writing a peak experience Writing a reflection	Objective: Crafting an informative article to share more about an issue/social cause/event	Objective: Crafting a paragraph that explains a topic (One-Word Inspiration)

PHPPS Chronicles

Chronicles is a semesterly digital newsletter where students express their thoughts, observations and learning about the different school experiences in both languages. Its title is derived from the intent to chronologically document the school’s programmes and events for the year through the voices of students and teachers. This platform’s intent is to empower student voices in capturing memories of the year, allowing them to record their memories in various modes like photographs, writing a caption, writing a story, expressing their opinions, etc. As SLS lessons adopt an exploratory approach to learning about different styles and genres of writing, it promotes the joy of learning to write and encourages self-directed learning.

PHPPS Chronicles

Original Link: https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/byozk/
Password - given in the PG