Writing

Subject Lead - Mrs Shaw

English is a core subject in the National Curriculum, and is the medium through which all learning takes place. At High Legh, we view the acquisition of language skills to be of the utmost importance, to prepare children for a literate society. If children are to achieve their full potential, they need to have the skills to communicate effectively, both orally and in the written word. Within a holistic approach to language, writing is given great emphasis, as it is our belief that a child's ability to communicate in writing affects performance in most other areas of the curriculum.

Scheme of Work

We use the Ready Steady Write scheme, which is closely aligned with the Talk4Writing process. This process involves immersing children in a high quality text, analysing the text and then creating a piece writing. A single unit covers 6 weeks of English lessons and includes a fiction and non-fiction piece of writing. Many of the texts used link closely to our foundation topics, which reinforces and adds to their topic learning e.g. 'Where We Once Stood' is used during Class 5's Earth and Space topic and 'The Iron Man' is used during Class 3's Force and Magnets topic.

In each unit, the children have opportunities to practise key aspects of the text type at sentence and word level. They begin to capture and orally rehearse ideas for their own writing. Through shared writing, teachers model how to write for the specific text and provide children with the opportunity to generate their own writing. Where appropriate, links are made to other areas of the curriculum and ICT resources and equipment is used to further support teaching and learning.

Spelling and Grammar

For spelling, we use the Ready Steady Spell scheme, which is a progressive and systematic approach to spelling for Years 2 to 6. It provides full coverage, by giving opportunities to reinforce and embed learning, in a fun and interactive way. The scheme gives us whole school consistency, especially as it is taught along side the Ready Steady Write and Ready Steady Phonics schemes in our school. In Year 2, pupils are fully immersed in their learning of spelling with five 20-minute lessons a week. The first four lessons teach new spellings, and the fifth lesson is an opportunity for children to revise the week's new learning and learn common exception words. In Years 3-6, children have three 20-minute lessons a week. Similarly to Year 2, in the first two lessons children are taught new spellings rules and strategies, and in the third lesson children revise learning and cover words from the National Curriculum's Statutory Word List. At the end of each half-term, there is an assessment and consolidation week. 

For the teaching of grammar, we follow a scheme of work provided by Plazoom. In the Autumn term, children are taught explicit grammar lessons, which ensures full coverage of the objectives for their year group. This is then reinforced by grammar lessons taught within the Ready Steady Write scheme. Teachers can then use their termly grammar assessments to decide what objectives need further reinforcement in the Spring and Summer terms, whether from a previous year group or continued revisiting of their own year group. 

Handwriting
This is taught alongside spelling and phonics and we follow the Morrells Handwriting scheme. Children are encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work, whether it is handwritten or produced using a computer.

Writing

Subject Lead - Mrs Shaw

English is a core subject in the National Curriculum, and is the medium through which all learning takes place. At High Legh, we view the acquisition of language skills to be of the utmost importance, to prepare children for a literate society. If children are to achieve their full potential, they need to have the skills to communicate effectively, both orally and in the written word. Within a holistic approach to language, writing is given great emphasis, as it is our belief that a child's ability to communicate in writing affects performance in most other areas of the curriculum.

Scheme of Work

We use the Ready Steady Write scheme, which is closely aligned with the Talk4Writing process. This process involves immersing children in a high quality text, analysing the text and then creating a piece writing. A single unit covers 6 weeks of English lessons and includes a fiction and non-fiction piece of writing. Many of the texts used link closely to our foundation topics, which reinforces and adds to their topic learning e.g. 'Where We Once Stood' is used during Class 5's Earth and Space topic and 'The Iron Man' is used during Class 3's Force and Magnets topic.

In each unit, the children have opportunities to practise key aspects of the text type at sentence and word level. They begin to capture and orally rehearse ideas for their own writing. Through shared writing, teachers model how to write for the specific text and provide children with the opportunity to generate their own writing. Where appropriate, links are made to other areas of the curriculum and ICT resources and equipment is used to further support teaching and learning.

Spelling and Grammar

For spelling, we use the Ready Steady Spell scheme, which is a progressive and systematic approach to spelling for Years 2 to 6. It provides full coverage, by giving opportunities to reinforce and embed learning, in a fun and interactive way. The scheme gives us whole school consistency, especially as it is taught along side the Ready Steady Write and Ready Steady Phonics schemes in our school. In Year 2, pupils are fully immersed in their learning of spelling with five 20-minute lessons a week. The first four lessons teach new spellings, and the fifth lesson is an opportunity for children to revise the week's new learning and learn common exception words. In Years 3-6, children have three 20-minute lessons a week. Similarly to Year 2, in the first two lessons children are taught new spellings rules and strategies, and in the third lesson children revise learning and cover words from the National Curriculum's Statutory Word List. At the end of each half-term, there is an assessment and consolidation week. 

For the teaching of grammar, we follow a scheme of work provided by Plazoom. In the Autumn term, children are taught explicit grammar lessons, which ensures full coverage of the objectives for their year group. This is then reinforced by grammar lessons taught within the Ready Steady Write scheme. Teachers can then use their termly grammar assessments to decide what objectives need further reinforcement in the Spring and Summer terms, whether from a previous year group or continued revisiting of their own year group. 

Handwriting
This is taught alongside spelling and phonics and we follow the Morrells Handwriting scheme. Children are encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work, whether it is handwritten or produced using a computer.