The children in Wolviston Primary School are offered many opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences, and we aim to foster creativity and personal expression. We believe that it is imperative for all children to reach their full potential in writing: a life skill which will serve them throughout their future life and work.
Good habits of letter formation, spelling, punctuation and grammar are also central to the school’s writing ethos. Writing is an ever-evolving skill and we encourage our children to edit and improve their work often, forever striving to produce their best work.
We use the Hamilton scheme which provides full coverage of the English National Curriculum in conjunction with the use of Letterjoin for handwriting and Spelling Shed for spellings. Our writing curriculum seeks to excite, engage and enthuse children whilst simultaneously providing them with the skills required to reach their full potential. This takes place through the use of high-quality texts as a starting point.
Different aspects of the five curriculum areas:
(i) Reading – word level,
(ii) Reading – comprehension,
(iii) Writing – transcription,
(iv) Writing – Composition and
(v) Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation
All are addressed in every block; the pedagogical approach integrates the teaching of these five areas. There is also a high emphasis placed on speaking and listening, with lots of drama and role play opportunities.
We have tailored the units we teach to fit in well with the rest of the curriculum. Each unit incorporates comprehension, spelling and the teaching of grammar and punctuation, all stimulated by the same core text and all culminating in a piece of extended writing to consolidate learning. The core unit is at the heart of the plan. It introduces the genre, its features and the key text(s). In this starter unit, there is a focus on comprehension, speaking and listening. Subsequent units build on this foundation and extend it.
Spellings are sent home weekly from Y1-Y6. The accurate spelling of words relation to phonics if focused on first and then spelling patterns and high frequency words. Spelling Shed is a purchased scheme that supports teachers and children. The children enjoying play spelling games at home and school and compete with their peers whilst adults have access to a range of resources.
Each classroom has a selection of dictionaries and thesaurus’ selected to meet the needs of that particular year group.
In the Early Years children are taught the principles of letter formation using the guidance from the document ‘Developing Early Handwriting’ using a pre cursive style of handwriting. From Key Stage 1 children are taught using the Letterjoin scheme. Children are taught to write in a joined style when they can form letters securely with the correct orientation.
We form our letters like this:
English Writing Progression Document