Writing

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We provide a rich variety of engaging, cross-curricular writing opportunities which are meaningful and relevant to the children. Writing is incorporated in all areas of our curriculum with an emphasis on writing for a real purpose.

Handwriting is taught across the school as a discrete subject enabling children to form letters correctly, join and be confident that their writing can be understood by others.  YR use a programme called Kinetic Letters and parents can find out more about this by clicking https://kineticletters.co.uk/

This programme will be rolled out across the school as the 21-22 cohort move up years.   Y1-Y6  use a cursive handwriting style.

Writing in the Early Years starts with mark making. Emergent writing is valued and encouraged.

In the EYFS, mark making opportunities are provided across the curriculum, in the indoor and outdoor classroom.

All children have regular opportunities to write at length.  Staff have spent a lot of time reading research and learning about the best ways of teaching writing so that children have all the tools they need to communicate well.  Staff have accessed professional development from Pie Corbett, Talk for Writing and Jane Considine ‘The Write Stuff’ as well as sharing good practice with colleagues in person and on blogs/social media.

Pupils are taught phonics daily in YR and Y1 to support their writing. For more information about how we teach phonics click here. By the end of Y1 pupils should have confidently mastered phonics and be secure phonetic writers. From Y2 onwards pupils are taught spelling rules and spelling patterns and have a weekly spelling test. Spellings are tested in the context of a dictated sentence, which mirrors how they will be tested in Y6.

We teach Grammar, Punctuation or Spelling (GPS) across Key Stage 2 every day. Children are taught spelling and grammatical rules which they are then expected to apply in their writing across the curriculum. Each year has specific spellings (National Curriculum 2014) which they are taught in class. These lists are available here: Spelling Lists for Y1-Y6 to help you support your child at home.

Children in Year 2 take part in statutory assessments (SATs) for writing in May each year. These results are reported to the government and available in summary on our results page. In Year 6 children take part in statutory assessments for grammar, punctuation and spelling, along with teacher assessment of writing. These results are reported to the government and available on our results page.

How to help your child with writing at home

    • Ensure you and your child have high expectations for their handwriting
    • Help your child to form their letters correctly
    • If they reverse letters or numbers help them to correct their work
    • Check that your child is spelling known words correctly
    • Support your child to complete their homework every week
    • Make sure they punctuate their sentences accurately with capital letters, full stops and other types of punctuation
    • Watch out for capital letters used incorrectly

Useful Websites for Writing

Topmarks Literacy pages

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx?cat=46

BBC Bitesize

https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/levels/z3g4d2p

Primary Interactive English pages

https://www.primaryinteractive.co.uk/english.htm

Oak National Academy – high quality English lessons with dedicated SPaG lessons (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

https://classroom.thenational.academy/year-groups