Writing
In all year groups, we teach writing through high-quality texts. We also utilise immersive real-life experiences, such as school trips. During their time at the school, children will write a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, including recounts, news reports, explanation texts, poems, plays and stories of all kinds. We use drama, role-play, storytelling and discussion to engage the imagination, before moving on to vocabulary exploration, sentence craft and creative writing.
Throughout the Early Years and Key Stage 1 children are taught the key principles of writing in order to lay a solid foundation for developing their skills later on. An emphasis is placed on developing clear handwriting with ‘finger spaces’ between in each word. Children are taught to apply their knowledge of phonics to help them spell accurately, and to structure their work, whether it be fiction writing or a set of instructions. Our curriculum teaches the children to add variation and description to their work by developing their vocabulary, including the use of interesting adjectives and adverbs and developing sentence structure using conjunctions and sentence openers. By the end of Key Stage 1 children have been taught the fundamentals of punctuation and grammar. This structural and technical knowledge is fostered alongside developing a love for writing as a lifelong means for communication and expressing oneself.
Handwriting
We use Oxford University Press’s Nelson scheme to support the teaching of handwriting. Handwriting is taught daily from Reception to Year 6, beginning with mark making and patterns in Early Years all the way up to legible, joined handwriting in Year 6. When a child is deemed to have legible, joined writing they are awarded a pen license and a certificate.
Phonics
In EYFS and KS1 we use Read, Write Inc to teach Phonics. You can find more information on how to help your child with Phonics by clicking here.
Spelling
Once children have completed Read Write Inc Phonics, they progress to Read Write Inc Spelling. Each spelling rule is introduced by a video and the children then complete tasks in their workbooks. Each unit lasts for five lessons. A spelling test is given at the end of each half term.
