In writing we want children to:
Implementation
How Do We Deliver the Writing Curriculum?
Our children are provided with a variety of opportunities to develop, extend and deepen their writing skills in and across each phase of education. In Nursery and Reception, the learning of writing follows the Early Years Foundation Stages Framework. Children are given opportunities to extend their understanding of language learning through play and investigation, developing their characteristics of learning. The National Curriculum 2014 describes what must be taught in key stage 1.
Our writing curriculum sets out to:
- Provide opportunities to explore a variety of different genres and to be exposed regularly to high quality texts, providing a model for pupils to aspire to;
- The ‘threshold concepts’ pupils should understand;
- Criteria for progression within the threshold concepts
| Range of Writing Genres for Years 1 and 2 |
|---|
| Threshold concepts |
| Milestone 1 |
| Threshold Concepts | ||
| Transcription | ||
| Present neatly
This concept involves developing an understanding of handwriting and clear presentation. |
Spell correctly
This concept involves understanding the need for accuracy. |
Punctuate accurately
This concept involves understanding that punctuation adds clarity to writing. |
| Composition | ||||
| Write with purpose
This concept involves understanding the purpose or purposes of a piece of writing |
Use imaginative description
This concept involves developing an appreciation of how best to convey ideas through description. |
Organise writing appropriately
This concept involves developing an appreciation of how best to convey ideas through description. |
Use paragraphs
This concept involves understanding how to group ideas so as to guide the reader. |
Use sentences appropriately
This concept involves using different types of sentences appropriately for both clarity and for effect. |
| Analysis and Presentation | |
| Analyse writing
This concept involves understanding how grammatical choices give effect and meaning to writing. |
Present writing
This concept involves learning to reflect upon writing and reading it aloud to others. |
How do children progress in writing from Nursery to Year 6?
Procedures for Teaching Composition
Talk for Writing
- ‘imitation’ (where pupils learn and internalise texts, to identify transferrable ideas and structures);
- ‘innovation’ (where pupils use these ideas and structures to co-construct new versions with their teachers);
- ‘invention’ (where teachers help pupils to create original texts independently).
These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language.
Big Write and Little Big Write
Big Writing is an approach to teaching writing and raising writing standards that focuses on:
- The importance of talk and oral rehearsal
- Accurate basic skills – spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting.
- High expectations for all pupils.
- Giving writing a purpose and making it fun!
- Talk homework must be sent home prior to a Big Write. Information about this is given to parents on an annual basis.
Big Write opportunities are planned into the long term plan.
Phases of the Talk for Writing approach
Literacy expert Pie Corbett gives an overview of the phases of the Talk for Writing approach, and how they work together to promote cumulative learning and p…
Special Education Needs in English
How do we ensure all children can access English lessons?
We aim to provide an exciting and engaging writing curriculum which will inspire children to nurture a passion for learning and develop the real-life skills necessary to support the most successful future possible. We have high expectations and differentiate carefully to ensure that all pupils receive a level of challenge appropriate for them to thrive. Our inclusive ethos means that all children are taught to understand that there are different pathways to success, that ‘getting stuck’ is good because it is when our best learning can happen and to develop perseverance by supporting them to overcome any barriers, which helps develop a sense of achievement in their successes. A focus on the development of basic skills provides our pupils with a secure foundation that they are able to build on securely throughout their learning journey.
To support successful transition across the school, we use a range of whole-school resources to support learning. Each of these resources include lots of opportunity for modelled and shared writing that employs ‘thinking out loud’ and supports all children to develop an awareness of how they learn best. These include ‘Talk 4 Writing’ which supports pupils by rehearsing language structures through actions and repetition. Visual supports such as text maps are used to support sequencing and aid memory.
Genre-specific units of work are planned and grammar is taught in context. Where necessary, children are supported with pre-teaching of the text and any unfamiliar technical vocabulary.
‘No Nonsense Spelling’ is a ‘little but often’ approach which allows children to revisit and review before learning and applying new strategies.
Impact
Children aged between two and three will be assessed in accordance with the literacy area of learning and development, outlined in the ‘Non Statutory Curriculum Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage’. At the end of Reception, teachers will report on the Early Learning Goals.
Throughout the year, teachers will plan on-going creative assessment opportunities in order to gauge whether pupils have achieved the key performance indicators for Years 1 and 2, based on the key performance indicators.
Assessment is undertaken in various forms, including the following:
- Talking to pupils and asking questions
- Discussing pupils’ work with them
- Feedback against success criteria
Verbal reports will be provided at parent-teacher interviews during the Autumn and Spring terms. Parents will be provided with a written report about their child’s progress during the Summer Term every year. These will include information on pupils’ attitudes towards writing and understanding of the key concepts.
The progress of pupils with SEND will be monitored by the SENCO. From 2022, where pupils are working below National Curriculum levels at the end of KS1, they will be assessed against the Engagement Model.
An Overview of the Teaching of Grammar from Nursery to Year 2
Tools that we use to help remember the different parts of grammar
Glossary of Grammar and Punctuation Terms
Year 1
Spelling
Compound Word: contain two or more root words.
Consonant: all other letters that are NOT vowels
Digraph: two letter represent one sound
Grapheme: a letter or combination of letters that represents a phoneme in a word.
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound in a word.
Plural: more than one, has the suffix s or es
Prefix: A prefix is added at the beginning of a word in order to turn it into another word, e.g. disappear.
Root word: words that can stand alone
Singular: one person or thing
Suffix: A suffix is an ‘ending’, used at the end of one word to turn it into another word, e.g. teacher.
Syllable: A syllable sounds like a beat in a word. They consist of at least one vowel and possibly one or more consonants
Trigraph: three letters that represent one sound
Vowels: the letters, a e i o u
Grammar and Punctuation
Adjectives: We introduce this to the children as a word that describes the noun e.g. the beautiful butterfly
Conjunction: A conjunction links two words or phrases together, e.g. when, and, but, because.
Noun: We introduce this to the children as the name of a person, place or thing. Some nouns are proper nouns so they need a capital letter (e.g. Ivan, Wednesday).
Sentence: A group of words that are grammatically connected to each that makes sense.
Verbs: We introduce this to the children as the doing word.
Punctuation
- Capital Letter
- Exclamation Mark – Used to indicate strong feelings or a raised voice in speech.
- Full stop – Used to end a sentence.
- Question Mark – Used when a direct question is asked.
Year 2
Continue to develop their understanding and use of Year 1 terminology
Spelling
Contractions: the shortening of words using an apostrophe e.g. can’t, I’ll
Homophone: Two different words that sound the same but are spelt differently, e.g. hear, here.
Near Homophone: Two words that are spelt the same but have different meanings.
Grammar and Punctuation
Adverb: We introduce this to the children as a word that describes the verb e.g. silently crept
Clause: A clause is a special type of phrase that has a verb. They can be a main or subordinate, e.g. It was raining.
Co-ordination – Linking two words or phrases as an equal pair using the conjunctions and but so or
Noun Phrase: A noun phrase usually contains a noun plus other words to describe it e.g The shabby dog slept.
Preposition: When or where something happens, e.g. to, at, outside
Pronouns: Used instead of the specific names, e.g. he, she
Subordination – when linking a main clause (this could be a sentence on it’s own) with a subordinate clause.
Tenses: In English, tense is the choice between present and past verbs.
Types of sentence:
- Command: This type of sentence tells you to do something. It ends with a full stop.
- Exclamation: This type of sentence should not be confused with the use of an exclamation mark to show high emotion. Usually an exclamation sentence beings with What .. or How … e.g. What big eyes you have! How beautiful your dress is!
- Question: This type of sentence asks something. It ends with a question mark.
- Statement: This type of sentence tells you about something, it is stating a fact. It ends with a full stop.
Punctuation
- Apostrophe: Used to show the place of missing letters in a contraction (e.g. I’m for I am) and for marking possessives (e.g. Hannah’s mother).Comma: A comma marks a slight break between different parts of a sentence or a list.
- Inverted commas –these are no longer referred to as speech marks and are used at the beginning and end of speech.
For more information on these terms see the National Curriculum glossary below.
National Curriculum Glossary
Handwriting
Spelling
Common Exception Words
Common exception words are words in which the English Spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way. They are not words for which phonics ‘doesn’t work’, but they may be exceptions to spelling rules, or words which use a particular combination of letters to represent sound patterns in a rare or unique way.
The Talk for Writing approach is a method of writing we use in school. This approach enables children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.
Talk for Writing, developed by Pie Corbett, is powerful because it is based on the principles of how people learn. The movement from imitation to innovation to invent is used across all our classes.
The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’, as well as close reading. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.
What is Talk for Writing? Pie Corbett explains
Talk for Writing founder and Literacy expert, Pie Corbett, gives a brief overview of the Talk for Writing approach to teaching Literacy, and why it works.
Composition Overview
Pie Corbett Talk for Writing Actions
Examples of Writing Maps. Writing maps help us to say what we want to write. We need to say it before we write it!
Help your child to build their vocabulary! Kids with a large vocabulary understand more of what they read and hear.
So big vocabulary=big learning!
Exploring new words on a regular basis is one of the best ways parents can support learning at home.
Here are some things you can try at home.
- Notice new words when you’re reading or listening. Talk about the importance of a large vocabulary and make an effort to learn new words.
- Talk about what to do when we discover unknown words. (Hint: Don’t just skip them.) Try using context clues or use another resource to find the meaning. Teach kids to locate words in the dictionary when they are able or use an online resource…
- But focus on kid-friendly definitions and examples of new words rather than complicated dictionary-style definitions
- Learn common roots, prefixes and suffixes to SUPER SIZE vocabulary knowledge. When you learn one word part, you’ll begin to easily recognise many more words with the same word parts.
- Interact with the words in some way. Draw their meaning. Act them out. Make them come alive so you’ll remember them.
- Relate words to real life experiences. Make them meaningful and make connections with new vocabulary.
- Read. A lot! Read all sorts of books, signs on the wall, directions, recipes… A wide variety of reading material will expose kids to a wide variety of new words.
What words are we trying to teach and encourage children to use? Overview of vocabulary by year group:
The policy will give you more detail about the learning and teaching of writing.
