English (Writing)

English (Writing)

Our English Curriculum

English plays a vital role in both education and in society as a whole. At Our Lady & St Patrick's we have developed a vibrant and engaging English Curriculum, through which we provide high-quality, consistent learning experiences, to enable all children to develop their skills in Oracy, Reading & Writing.

Enrichment in our English Curriculum

Children's enjoyment of our English Curriculum is strengthened through the celebration of events such as National Poetry Day 2023 - look at the fun we had when we enjoyed a fabulous visit from children's poet and author Fay Evans!

Our Aims in English:

To promote high standards of literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
To ensure that all pupils read easily, fluently and with good understanding of the text.
To develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
To ensure that all children acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
To encourage children to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
To write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
To use discussion in order to learn; children should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
To become competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Our Writing Curriculum

At Our Lady & St Patrick's, all children are exposed to high-quality texts, which stimulate positive responses to reading, high quality writing, and purposeful opportunities for Speaking & Listening.

Our writing curriculum ensures that all children have many opportunities to write for different purposes. We encourage writing through all curriculum areas and use quality reading texts to model examples of good writing, as the basis for our writing curriculum.

At Our Lady & St Patrick's, we have adopted the 'I am a Clever Writer' approach to writing.

The main aims of this new approach to writing are:

To ensure a consistent and streamlined approach to writing
To develop an inspirational writing spine to fit the needs of our school community
To provide detailed skill and genre progression documents
To ensure all our teachers know how to teach the basics of writing, effectively
To raise the standards of writing for all children, including those children who are disadvantaged

Copies of the long term plans for writing, based on quality texts - including the use of picture books throughout school and up to Year 6 - are available from our writing lead. In addition, skills progression and genre progression documents are in place for Year 1 to Year 6, and a copy of these is also available from our writing lead (Emily Nattrass).

In our Early Years, teachers are skilled in the teaching of early writing and phonics. All early writing is based around key texts and 'real-life' activities, which are closely linked to EYs topics and themes.

Please click the icons for more information on 'I am a Clever Writer'

High Quality Texts to Underpin Writing

I am a Clever Writer provides teachers with carefully planned writing sequences, based on key skills in writing, and based on a broad range of specially selected, high-quality texts.

Children are encouraged to use their knowledge of these texts to write for a variety of purposes, building up their skills throughout the week, leading for best writing pieces at the end of the sequence. Wherever possible, they are also encouraged to share and publish their work for a selected audience, using a range of writing forms. They learn to plan, draft, revise, edit, refine and present their work, before evaluating the success of their completed writing.

Grammar and Punctuation

The 'I am a Clever Writer' approach teaches and reinforces grammar & punctuation within each unit of work.

This means that, throughout school, grammar and punctuation is taught to match the writing purpose. This begins with teaching and consolidating basic sentence structures in Early years and Key Stage One.

In Key stage Two, children further develop their understanding of increasingly complex sentence structures, and using the relevant technical terms to be able to discuss and justify the choices they have made when structuring their ideas.

Spelling

In our Early Years and Key Stage One, children learn to spell through the implementation of the Success For All Phonics Programme, and daily lessons in phonics and spelling.

In Years 3 to 6, children are taught spellings relevant to their year group, through our bespoke spelling scheme.

Children's progress in spelling is tracked carefully as they move through school, so that any gaps in spelling can be identified and quickly addressed.

Children also regularly use dictionaries and thesaurus to check and improve their work.

Handwriting

Handwriting is very important at Our Lady & St Patrick's, and children are taught to write in a neat, legible style, from their earliest days in school, and using a cursive script from Year Two onwards.

Extra handwriting sessions are timetabled in addition to handwriting being modelled and taught within all writing lessons. We maintain a focus at all times on correct pencil grip; forming all letters correctly by knowing the size and orientation of each letter; using the correct handwriting joins; clear and neat presentation and increasing fluency and speed of writing.

National Curriculum Programme of Study for English

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