THE GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Giving Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day
Acting Headteacher: Francesca Mawson

Writing

Writing Policy

EYFS/KS1 English Overview

LKS2 English Overview

UKS2 English Overview

Grammaristics Progression

Composition and Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation

 

Jane Considine Unit Coverage

At The Grange Primary School, we believe that every child can develop the tools needed to become an effective writer. By following the ‘The Write Stuff’ approach to writing by Jane Considine, our pupils are offered a wide range of opportunities to develop their skills, read texts as a writer and write texts as a reader, through a clear and systemic approach to the teaching and learning of composition, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. Each year group from FS2-Y6 has six carefully chosen and tailored half-termly units which meet and exceed the requirements of the National Curriculum for English, offering our pupils exposure to a range of genres and text-types. Each unit is based on a high-quality text, linking to topics where appropriate, and the teaching sequence increases confidence, enthusiasm and independence through modelled sentence stacking sessions and engaging experience sessions. As a result, our pupils are engaged with the content and purpose for writing whilst developing an understanding of the power of vocabulary, sentence structure and layout. Throughout the teaching sequence, pupils are offered opportunities for continuous reflection and evaluation through self and peer assessment, further developing their resilience, communication and critique skills to produce high-quality writing.

At the end of each unit, pupils have the opportunity to apply their knowledge to a piece of independent writing, which is then assessed against National Curriculum expectations.

Additional and appropriate Write Stuff units are used to facilitate English across the curriculum. In addition to the half-termly being taught, our pupils are offered discrete vocabulary, grammar and punctuation lessons which supplement the teaching and learning in each year group, offering challenge and support to our pupils in becoming confident, effective writers.

Transcription – Handwriting and Spelling

At The Grange Primary School, we appreciate that writing is a complex process and believe it is essential that transcription skills (pencil grip, letter formation and spelling) must be automatic to remove barriers to learning for recording oral composition. Therefore, we invest in handwriting and spelling practise as an essential foundation in developing writing as a whole.

Handwriting at The Grange Primary School is taught using the Nelson scheme, which offers a consistent and progressive approach to handwriting, ensuring that pupils meet the expected standard at the end of each stage. Handwriting is practised regularly in discrete sessions and is reinforced by teaching staff across the curriculum in order to support our pupils to develop their fine motor skills and ensure a fluent and effective handwriting style is established, so they can write legibly at speed. In EYFS, handwriting is taught in line with the EYFS statutory framework, focusing on fine and gross motor skills (including the use of strategies such as Dough Disco) and letter formation. In Year 1, handwriting is taught using Nelson at Blue level, focusing on letter formation and appropriate letter size. In Years 2-6, handwriting is taught progressively using Nelson at Red level, focusing on letter joins, increasing consistency and legibility to develop a personal handwriting style and apply to a range of writing opportunities. Additionally, our pupils progress from lined books (EYFS-Y1), to tramlines (Y1-Y3), to line guides (Y4-6) and have the opportunity to earn pen licences. This encourages our pupils to have high standards and pride in the presentation of their work.

Spelling at The Grange Primary School is taught following the Sounds Write approach in discrete sessions and is reinforced by teaching staff across the curriculum. Across the year groups, a specific spelling strategy focus is introduced, taught and tested throughout each week. During phonics/spelling sessions, pupils are offered the opportunity to practise and revisit their spelling, punctuation and grammar skills through dictated sentences. For pupils in EYFS and KS1, spelling is taught in daily phonics sessions, and in KS2 spelling is taught through polysyllabic spelling sessions which have been adapted to best suit the needs of our pupils and reinforce their understanding of spelling strategies. Spelling lists for tests have been developed in line with the National Curriculum expectations for each year group, with opportunities to revisit and reinforce prior learning. Weekly spelling lists are set as homework to be completed in line with the school’s Homework Policy.

For further information on Sounds Write, please visit the Phonics and Reading page on our website.

How Parents Can Support

  • Read and discuss a range of fiction and non-fiction texts with your child at home to expose them to different sentence structures, text layouts and vocabulary.  Please see https://www.booksfortopics.com/ and https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/reading-spine for further guidance on appropriate key texts.
  • Use the free library service to access a range of resources to support your child with writing.
  • Support your child in practising their set spellings for homework. Use letter sounds rather than letter names with their children at home. This will avoid confusion for the children and will reinforce the learning being done at school.
  • Offer your child the opportunity to write for pleasure with different writing tools for a range of purposes (e.g. write own party invitations, write a bedtime story).
  • Use the resources available in the home-school links book to practise spelling in line with National Curriculum expectations for their year group.