Writing at Grange

At Grange Primary School, we are inclusive and believe that our writing curriculum should prepare all children for the next stage of learning, whether this be to a new year group, a new key stage or when they transition into secondary school. Our curriculum is constructed to be ambitious and designed to give all learners, no matter their individual need, ability or background, the knowledge and skills they require to succeed in life; it is coherently planned and sequenced in order to fulfil this aim.

We teach English by following the Literacy Tree. Literacy Tree is a complete, thematic approach to the teaching of primary English that places children’s literature at its core. We are immensely proud that our school has been chosen as a Literacy Tree Flagship School for our innovative use of the book-based approach across our school.

How does it work? Literacy Tree is an award-winning platform which has designed a curriculum which immerses children in a literary world, therefore creating strong levels of engagement to provide meaningful and authentic contexts for primary English. Children become critical readers and acquire an authorial style as they encounter a wide-range of significant authors and a variety of diverse fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

As a whole-school approach, children explore at least 100 literary texts and experience over 75 unique significant authors as they move through the school. It provides complete coverage of all National Curriculum expectations for writing composition, reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary, as well as coverage of spelling. All plans lead to purposeful application within a wide variety of written outcomes.

At our school, the Literacy Tree texts are mapped out to ensure progression and National Curriculum coverage across all year groups. We have high expectations of all children and intend for them to leave Year 6 as confident, fluent, independent writers.

Our aim is for children to not only understand the purpose and importance of writing within wider society, but that they positively engage in the process; taking pride and personal responsibility for their part in this.

We intend for our children to be able to communicate effectively through their writing across a range of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, genres and themes.  We aim for children to be able to write for different levels of formality, purpose and audience.  This applies to all writing opportunities, including when writing across the wider curriculum, where children are expected to apply the written and spoken language skills they have acquired from the English curriculum. We intend to immerse the children in a range of quality texts and media; exposing them to a wealth of rich vocabulary and grammatical structures that enable them to be creative and risk-takers, while maintaining a critical and reflective approach.

Spelling:

Spelling and grammar are taught rigorously across both key stages at Grange Primary School.  Children in year 1 learn to spell the common exception words correctly and spell other words with their increasing phonics knowledge.  Children in year 2, teach the Bridge to Spelling from Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, then move into the programme’s Year 2 Spelling units.  The programme provides full coverage of National Curriculum spelling requirements.  Teachers in key stage 2 teach spelling through Literacy Tree- Spelling Seeds.  Spelling Seeds complement Literacy Tree Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling.  The objectives and spelling words match the Literacy Tree text being covered to make for purposeful application.

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Handwriting:

Fine motor and gross motor skills are a crucial part of children’s development. These activities are planned throughout the Early Years and year 1, in order to support children to build muscles and to practise and master the skills needed for everyday activities.  Children in reception receive explicit letter formation instruction daily alongside phonics, where the children practise forming letters using rhymes to embed the correct formation.  Additionally, gross motor and fine motor interventions are put in place for those children who may need additional practice of these skills across the school.  In years 1 and 2, children receive daily handwriting practise sessions with explicitly modelled formation.

This is taught through their spelling and high frequency words.  In year 3, these lessons are taught several times a week alongside spellings. In years 4, 5 and 6, lessons are also taught through spellings but the frequency is dependent on the need; in key stage 2, children will record their handwriting in their English book alongside their daily written English work.  Children who write in a legible printed style, with their letters formed correctly, will then be taught to join their letters (using the font, Letter join No Lead 4 as an example).  Children who attain a neat, legible joined handwriting style are awarded with a ‘pen license’ and are given a handwriting pen.  Handwriting should be consistent throughout all lessons, including across the curriculum. Pen licenses are taken away from a child if a neat joined style is not maintained. The lines in a child’s english workbook reflect the child’s handwriting ability.  Grange Primary School uses the Letter-join handwriting scheme. Children have access to Letter-join Home Edition to enable them to practise their handwriting at home.  Teachers model this handwriting during lessons and the cursive script is visible to children in displays around the school. Children who need additional support in spelling or handwriting are targeted in interventions that are tailored to address their specific gaps.

Speaking & Listening

INTENT

Speaking and listening is important withing Grange Primary School’s curriculum and is developed from EYFS.   We believe spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing and understanding across the curriculum.  The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing.  Through developing their skills and ability in spoken language and listening, pupils are enabled to communicate their understanding and clarify their thinking.

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IMPLEMENTATION

​Through our curriculum, the learner as a speaker & listener is taught to:

• listen carefully and attentively in a range of contexts
• speak clearly and convey ideas confidently using Standard English including reading aloud
• justify ideas with reasons
• ask questions to check understanding;
• develop vocabulary and build knowledge across the curriculum
• negotiate; evaluate and build on the ideas of others
• select the appropriate register for effective communication
• give well-structured descriptions and explanations
• develop their understanding through speculating, hypothesising and exploring ideas
• use and explore the spoken word in a range of contexts, including presentations, debates and drama
• speak audibly and confidently before an audience

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IMPACT

Children will leave Grange Primary School and be able to listen carefully and attentively and speak clearly. They will be able to ask deep and meaningful questions to improve their understanding and take part in collaborative discussions.  They will be confident in speaking in a range of situations, in front of a range of audiences and be able to express their ideas clearly.  Children will demonstrate the ability to use a range of vocabulary, which will mean they can fully understand what they are hearing and they are able to articulate what they want to say.  They will be equipped, not only with the skills to speak and listen effectively using standard English but to be able to apply these in their everyday lives and in their next stages of education- for research, information and to explore the world around them.

Reading and Phonics

We, at Grange Primary School, believe that becoming a fluent, skilled and attentive reader starts at the earliest stages.  We value the importance of oracy, using spoken language to develop children’s communication skills and broaden their vocabulary.

At Grange Primary School, we believe that all of our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.

We start teaching phonics in Nursery and from Reception we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all of our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.  We model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum.

We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

At Grange Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

Fostering a love of reading and sharing stories, poems and rhymes, are paramount in developing children’s vocabulary and comprehension.  All staff work hard to embed a culture where books, vocabulary and reading take top priority.

Reading for Pleasure

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Grange Primary School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• Every double teaching space has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
• In nursery/ reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
• Children from nursery onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
• As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.
• Each class visits our school library once a week. It is made available for classes to use at protected times.
• Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (book fairs, author visits and workshops, national events etc).

Celebrating Reading

In our mission to develop keen and fluent readers, we place a huge emphasis on exploring books and authors throughout the school calendar.  We regularly timetable reading for pleasure sessions; encourage staff and children to share their favourite books and authors; classes have a dedicated ‘story time’ each day; and we celebrate days/ weeks such as, National Storytelling Week, poetry week and World Book Day which are accompanied by author visits and workshops.  We run a sponsored read where children are encouraged to read and raise money for new books for the library.  Further to this, each child has a home reading record that they take home with their reading book each day. They are encouraged to read for 10 minutes at home in key stage one and at least 15 minutes in key stage two and discuss the book with their parent or carer.  The children bring their signed reading record in each morning to be monitored by an adult.  If children are not reading at home, the class teacher will contact contacts parents to see if there is anything we can do to help support this at home.  Children earn certificates at the weekly assembly and prizes for their continued effort in reading.

Whole class shared reading

From Year 2, children are taught reading using the shared reading approach through the Literacy Tree: Literacy Leaves three days a week.  Wherever possible, children will have access to a hard copy of the text and share this, one between two.  A key text is chosen from a variety of class sets available to each year group; these books cover a range of genres and text types and where possible, have been carefully chosen to link to other areas of study, to support our cross-curricular reading approach.  Teachers begin by contextualizing the book, introducing new vocabulary and modelling reading strategies.  The lesson then focuses on a core reading skill, taken from the content domains laid out in the National Curriculum. Teachers develop bespoke questions to support children’s development which align with age related expectations.   Reading aloud is modelled by the class teacher (and children) alongside the process of comprehension and understanding of a text taught. On the remaining two days of the week, children complete activities based around their class text, reading for pleasure, or reading with an adult.  Children reading one to one with an adult in their class have the opportunity to discuss their favourite books and characters in a relaxed environment with a familiar adult.