We teach the following writing process:
We aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made. To engross children in the writing process, children are given opportunities to write for a range of purposes; they are encouraged to think about and engage the intended reader. Particular attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English; grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling.
Writing is based on the interests of each cohort and the topics they are learning. Stimuli is found from a range of sources such as videos, music, images, novels and extracts. Writing opportunities are sourced and developed based on the needs of each cohort. Our curriculum allows children to have the opportunity to explore rich, high-quality texts in depth, enhancing reading comprehension and providing meaningful contexts and purposes for writing. The teaching of this is flexible and class teachers are then, in turn, able to apply their own creativity to cover the objectives set out in the National Curriculum.
At Meldreth, our curriculum very much focuses on the needs of individual child. Children access a personalised curriculum. A writing unit usually lasts 2-3 weeks. Within this time, children are taught the formal structures of English appropriate to their current ability. This may include covering the curriculum from previous year groups. We believe children should be secure in a year group before moving onto the next year groups’ curriculum. This ensures children’s skills are embedded before moving on.
If a child is confident within their year groups’ curriculum, they will not move onto the next year but will master their current year group. This includes lots of opportunities to write from different perspectives and in older classes the opportunity to decide purpose and audience.
Throughout a unit children have opportunities to take part in ‘free-writes’. This is an opportunity for children to apply new learning. In all year groups children end a unit completing the full writing process.
Writing - what your child will learn during their time with us
Grammar Long Term Overview 2022 - 2023
Spelling
To be able to spell correctly is an essential life skill. When spelling becomes automatic, pupils can concentrate on the content of their writing and the making of meaning. Whilst we note that spelling is not the most important aspect of writing, confidence in spelling can have a profound effect on the writer’s self-image. We aim to use explicit, interactive teaching, which draws children’s attention to the origins, structure and meaning of words and their parts, the shape and sound of words, the letter patterns within them and the various ways they can learn these patterns.
In Reception and Year 1, daily phonics is the key to the children’s learning of spelling. From Year 2 and into KS2 the children move towards using their phonic knowledge to help them to understand spelling rules and patterns. We teach children to use their growing understanding of the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words to support their spelling. Helping the children to understand how to use and apply known spelling patterns (and to develop strategies to tackle tricky words) is the key to helping them to become successful spellers. Spelling skills are taught daily from Year 3 as 'Magic Spell' sessions .
When writing, children should be concentrating on higher order thinking skills and should simply ‘have a go’ at spelling. Where words are spelt incorrectly, they are highlighted in their books. Children are then given the correct spelling, copying it correctly at least 3 times. Staff also recognise common errors in class and these are added to weekly spellings.
Year 2 Spelling Coverage
Year 3 Spelling Coverage
Year 4 Spelling Coverage
Year 5 Spelling Coverage
Year 6 Spelling Coverage
Handwriting
Our Foundation Stage children are involved in varied activities to develop essential pre-writing skills in line with the Early Learning Goals; there is much focus on developing gross and fine motor skills and strengthening muscles in the arms and fingers. We use ‘Dough Disco’ and many playdough activities to increase muscle strength. Children are also introduced to the individual graphemes (letter shapes) and rigorously taught correct formation, from the very beginning of their time in school. From the time that children are ready, they are taught to sit with a good posture and are taught to hold a pencil with the correct grip.
As children progress through school, there is an increasing focus on fluency, consistency and speed, with children earning a pen license once their handwriting is accepted to be of a good standard.
