Writing

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King

The method of teaching English at the Churchside Federation is through the idea of reading as a writer and writing as a reader. Each sequence of learning is considered in this way to ensure that the children are making links between what they are reading and what they write. It is for this reason that we have chosen to use The Literacy Tree Scheme to teach writing. Each writing sequence within this scheme is based around a high-quality, age appropriate text. This scheme is adapted by class teachers to adapt to the specific needs of the children in their class. This may include the use of scaffolding for support and extensions such as providing a dual purpose to deepen the understanding for more confident writers. The focus on audience and purpose ensures that the children are developing their understanding of a wide variety of genres and text types.

Expectations for writing in all year groups can be found in the expectation booklets on the class pages.

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

“Let grammar, punctuation and spelling into your life. Even the most energetic and wonderful mess has to be turned into sentences.” – Terry Pratchett

The writing journey throughout Churchside has a clear focus on the skill progression, including understanding of more complex grammar and punctuation. The progression of skills document can be found to download on this page. All Literacy Tree sequences have a focus on specific grammar and punctuation to be taught for the end text type.

Children learn the year group specific spelling rules through the use of Spelling Seed sessions taken from The Literacy Tree. These are taught using the text from the Writing Roots sessions to enable the children to see the words used within the context of a written piece.

Where gaps have been identified in individual children’s knowledge of spelling, our Smashing Spelling sessions support the children in closing these gaps. These sessions take place after the children have been assessed by each teacher and are given some words to practise. The children write the word, along with a clue to the spelling, on a flashcard and are periodically tested on these until they can accurately write them without support.

How can you help at home?

There are many ways in which you can help to support your child’s writing at home. There are many websites which can help with grammatical elements of writing through games and fun activities. One such website is:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary

Children find it easier to be motivated to write if they have a real purpose. There are many writing competitions which can be found on the internet related to poetry or story-writing. Equally, asking the children to write a letter to a friend or family member, or to write an information text about their favourite animal to teach someone to look after them can be a very valuable writing experience for your child. Perhaps they could write down their favourite family recipe to teach their teacher!

Big writes

Every term, all of the children are tasked with completing a big write inspired by a picture sent from Mrs Godbold. After completing some drama or a class planning session, the children love having the opportunity to show off all of their writing skills in a piece of creative writing.

“You can make anything by writing.”

–C.S. Lewis

English makes a major contribution to pupils’ SMSC development through:

Developing confidence and expertise in language, which is an important aspect of individual and social identity.

Enabling pupils to understand and engage with the feelings and values embodied in high quality poetry, fiction, drama, film and televisions.

Developing pupils’ awareness or moral and social issues in fiction, journalism, magazines, radio, television and film.

Helping pupils to understand how language changes over time, the influences on spoken and written language and social attitudes to the use of language.

Helping pupils to engage in emotional literacy through differing genres.