Writing
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Our English curriculum is derived around a ‘mastery approach to writing.’ We use a key text or visual stimulus to create opportunities to develop imagination skills, develop a deep understanding of the genre being taught; explore the writing structure and features of different genres; plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting. Our children are immersed into the genres through a variety of texts, film clips, posters and books - and above all, we encourage daily writing. Each child publishes their work in their Writing Books, giving them a sense of pride in their presentation. They are encouraged to write independently for a sustained length of time using prompt mats, word mats and the working wall to help them.
Spelling
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Spellings are sent home each week for your child to learn. These are based on phonic knowledge lower down the school and set spelling rulers further up the school linked to the New National Curriculum 2014. The children are taught the spelling rule throughout the week and are expected to learn their spellings ready for a test towards the end of the week.
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How can I support my child’s writing?
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1. Reading with your child
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No matter their age, reading regularly to your child, often books that they can’t yet read independently, is a great way of supporting their writing. Listening to books being read aloud introduces them to different ideas that they can borrow and adapt for their own writing, as well as hearing different ways of using language that are often from the types of sentences that we use when we speak.
Try to make sure your child gets to hear a range of different types of books, including fiction and non-fiction. This is useful for their writing, as it allows them to encounter a wide variety of different types of language and different purposes for writing.
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2. Giving your child opportunities to write
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Writing for a real-life purpose can be a great way of practising writing. Writing cards, shopping lists, or letters and emails to relatives can all be motivating real life reasons for writing. Children might also keep a diary or be encouraged to write short stories based on books they have read or toys they enjoy playing with. Older children could produce their own version of a book for a younger child – The Rhino Who Came to Tea or The Very Hungry Angler Fish, for example. Books with a distinctive format such as The Day the Crayons Quit or The Last Polar Bears are perfect for this. Another idea is for children to write the book of the film (or TV programme). If children have watched something they’ve really enjoyed, they could try and tell the same story in writing. While writing using a pen and pencil is useful practice, writing on the computer counts too. You might want to turn the spelling and grammar check off to help children to learn to use their own knowledge. The grammar check can be wrong too, so this can be confusing for children.
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3. Helping your child with spelling
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While there’s obviously much more to good writing than correct spelling, if children are worrying about spelling a particular word or having to stop frequently to think about spelling it can prevent them from concentrating on the other aspects of writing, including communicating their ideas.
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4. Helping your child with grammar and punctuation
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The curriculum in England puts a lot of emphasis on children learning to use grammar and punctuation. For ideas and support with grammar and punctuation, there are lots of interactive games online!
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5. Helping your child with handwriting
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Different children develop control over their handwriting at different points, and there is certainly a lot more to be a good writer than having neat handwriting. That said, learning to form letters correctly at the start of school can very useful for later on as it is much harder to unlearn habits once they have been formed. Fluent, neat handwriting is useful to ensure that a reader can understand what a child is trying to communicate in their writing, as well as helping a child to feel confident about their writing.