Writing
Implementation of a Clear Writing Process
English lessons are taught over 5 days mainly taught by the class teacher. Units can last from 1 week to 4 weeks depending on what needs to be covered. Units comprise of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Grammar will be taught through units but explicitly if needed.
The planning has been carefully crafted to allow children to meet the heightened demands of The National Curriculum. The plans weave together statements from the reading (word reading and comprehension) and writing (transcription, handwriting, composition, VGP and spelling) components of the 2014 curriculum, showing how all of these aspects of learning can be addressed through creative learning experiences.
Our units are based on engaging texts that allows for exciting opportunities to develop children's reading, writing and spoken language. Where appropriate and if the link is strong enough some English units will be taught cross curricular or throughout the school.
Early Years Foundation Stage
Nursery and Reception use Development matters to inform their planning. They plan, design and create provision to aid progress towards ELGs.
The class has a designated writing area, creative area, role play, small world and fine motor opportunities to support the initial stages of writing and using role play or small world to develop their language skills. The Prime Areas of Learning; communication and language, Physical development and Personal Social; being at the heart of this. Adult led sessions are planned daily where they will have whole class input and then adult directed small group work.
Key Stage 1 and 2
The school has adopted the Herts For Learning planning and mapped the various genres across the school to ensure sequenced and progressive lessons for Key Stages 1 and 2.
Lessons are clearly structured to allow children to develop essential knowledge and skills. Effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity; awareness of the audience, purpose and context and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary, spelling and grammar.
Lessons in KS1 are structured to allow our children to discuss ideas for writing before forming written pieces. Children are taught essential knowledge and skills to craft a piece of writing over time in order to build stamina, and sufficient time is given to ensure quality pieces of work.
Each class will cover:
High Quality Texts
High quality texts are the base for our English units so the children are exposed to visual stimuli which spark imagination and inspire ideas for writing. Texts are also used to explore layout and language features of specific genres.
Strong Grammar teaching
Across the school, children are taught to use precise grammatical terminology to discuss and learn from the texts that support each unit. Grammar is taught in context. Stand-alone grammar lessons are taught if required.
Writing for a range of Purposes
Children in KS1 write for a range of purposes and audiences and this is developed and strengthened in KS2. In KS2 children are given opportunities to study authorial choice and content to solidify understanding of text types and to enhance skills in grammar, sentence structure and punctuation.
Poetry exploration
Children explore a range of poetry in KS1 and KS2. Specific poetry types are taught across the school. Some are repeated in year groups to ensure children solidify their understanding of poetry techniques; enhance their skills at writing poetry, and practise performing poetry.
Strong Vocabulary Development
KS1 explores vocabulary in texts and collects ideas for writing. In KS2 children, children are encouraged to draw upon what they read when writing and to ‘magpie’ vocabulary from shared texts. All classes have working walls where this can be displayed, alongside other useful words which the children can access independently.