Writing
At St Giles’ C of E Primary School, we recognise the importance of writing throughout the curriculum and as a life skill. Children are given every opportunity to develop technical writing skills and to then apply this learning to a range of styles, purposes and audiences. Units are planned around quality texts so that children are exposed to a range of genres including fiction, non- fiction and poetry. Children continually evaluate and improve their own work and understand their next steps for learning. Clear learning objectives with success criteria enable children to recognise the steps they need to make progress in their writing.
We use Bug Club Phonics from Reception to Year One to teach phonics for reading and spelling. Children have access to word mats containing alternative spelling patterns and Common Exception Words, which they use to aid them in their writing. From Year Two onwards, the ‘No Nonsense Spelling’ programme is used for consistent teaching of spelling. In Key Stage One and Two, children take part in weekly spelling tests, which they practise throughout the week when they come into school. Children are encouraged to use our online programme ‘Spelling Shed’ to make their spelling practice more enjoyable.
Children are taught handwriting through the Penpals programme, and joining is encouraged as soon as letters are formed correctly. Children take pride in their books and work is well presented.
As a school we have adopted “The Write Stuff” by Jane Constantine and units from the ‘Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing. “The Write Stuff” follows a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.
An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:
Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence;
Model section – the teacher models a sentence that outlines the required writing features;
Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.
Please find further information below in our whole school progression documents for Writing.