At Greenleas, English writing is fundamental to all learning across the school curriculum. We help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively, accurately and creatively through written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We deliver the National Curriculum for English through Talk For Writing (T4W) supplemented by other appropriate resources such as Read Write Inc Spelling, Spell it Out and Pen Pals for Handwriting to achieve the standards of creativity, accuracy, fluency and resilience our children deserve to be successful learners in their follow on schools.
English lessons in Years 1-4 takes place daily, with handwriting sessions throughout the week. Daily phonics sessions are scheduled in addition to this time allocation in Year 1, in Year 2 – 4 this time is allocated to spelling.
Talk for Writing – ‘Talk for Writing’ (TFW) is followed by all pupils in Early Years to Year 4. TFW is an approach to teaching writing that encompasses a three-stage pedagogy: ‘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), and ‘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.
Handwriting - Children learn and are then expected to apply correct letter formations and early joins by the end of Year 1. In Year 2, joined handwriting becomes the focus and most writing should be joined correctly and consistently across all written work. When this is evident, children are rewarded with a pencil of perfection. In KS2 children learn to join all of their handwriting and are expected to apply this to all written work. When this is achieved, a pen licence is awarded.
Spelling - In EYFS and Year 1, early spelling is taught through BugClub Phonics. Read Write Inc. (RWI) activities are used in Years 2-4 to teach the spelling patterns specified in the National Curriculum and each unit is taught over a one or two week period. Children complete dictation linked to the current spelling pattern and this may be child or teacher-led in KS1. In KS2, a teacher-led dictation of curriculum words and spelling patterns is completed during alternate weeks. In addition to RWI, ‘Spell it Out’ is used in Years 2-4 to constantly revisit and revise previously taught spelling patterns. Children have a 30-minutes ‘Spell It Out’ Lesson fortnightly, as well as a ‘Spell it Out Display’ in every classroom where the children add spellings they have found independently that link to the original word in their list. Each child also has a Focus 5 (KS2) or Focus 3 (Year 2) which are spelling that each individual child needs to focus on based on their Cold Write. National Curriculum spelling patterns are also shared with parents via planners and words from the current spelling patterns are loaded onto ‘Spelling Shed’ for the children to practise online.