English

To encourage our children to be accurate and confident when writing independently for an intended audience and purpose.

To enable our children to write at length within a given genre.

To enable our children to use and understand a wide range of vocabulary, punctuation and grammatical structures.

The programmes of Study for Key stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are divided into two dimensions:

Transcription (spelling and handwriting).

Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

We see the teaching of writing as a sequential process that allows children to understand, explore and write a variety of text type. By the end of a writing unit, our children will have gained the knowledge and skills needed to be able to write confidently and independently. Children use working walls, dictionaries and thesaurus to support their development of a writing piece.  

Throughout their time at Nicol Mere, our children are given the opportunity to write a wide range of genres. These genres are carefully planned for so that our children’s experience, knowledge and understanding of these are added to and built upon at each stage. Teachers are not restricted to these and have the flexibility to modify writing genres according to the needs and interests of the children in their cohort.

See Long Term Writing Overview

The writing process follows a set sequence. The whole process of writing may take anywhere from a few days up to three school weeks to complete depending on several factors: is the genre completely new to the children? What year group are the children in? How many EGPS/ sentence structure teaching is taking place? How much editing are the children doing?

Click link for Nicol Mere Writing Process

As well as writing in English lessons, children are given ample opportunities to write independently within other subjects across the curriculum. Writing is linked to the knowledge gained in these subject areas and genres that have been taught previously.

Children are taught the specific features of grammar and punctuation within the writing process. Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are taught in isolation but used and applied in writing and identified and discussed in reading. Each year group follow a programme of study from which our children gain the knowledge and vocabulary needed to discuss and develop their own writing. These elements are further practised within discrete SPAG lessons and are then applied in writing. Our children learn the correct grammatical terms in English and these terms are integrated within teaching.

Opportunities for teachers to enhance children’s vocabulary arise naturally from their reading and writing. As vocabulary increases, we show children how to understand the relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning and how to develop their use and understanding of figurative language. Our children are also exposed to a variety of common sayings and phrases each week in order to broaden children’s understanding and use of vocabulary.

To enable our children to spell known words accurately.

To equip our children with decoding strategies needed to tackle unknown words.

To enable our children to use their knowledge of letter strings, word formation and spelling patterns to spell unknown words.

Teaching patterns/letter strings/rules (specific to Y1/2, Y3/4 & Y5/6).

Teaching/practising the statutory word lists (HFW and those specific to Y3/4 & Y5/6).

The letters/letter strings/rules are taught through daily streamed phonics groups following the Letters and Sounds Programme. 

A certain amount of HFW (see EYFS HFW) has been designated to Early Years to teach. These words are taught in daily phonics and English lessons.

Letter strings/rules are taught daily through streamed phonics groups. Children are given a set amount of specific words (based on letter strings/rules) to learn each week and are tested and a record of scores are kept by teachers. Children follow the Letters and Sounds programme and then follow a similar structure to KS2 using the Year 2 spelling National Curriculum.

Children are given ample time (at least ten-minute sessions, three times per week) to learn and practise spellings taken from the 100 HFW and the next 200 HFW appropriately.

In a typical day, our children have ten minutes (8.50-9.00) to learn/practise spellings taken from the year group word list. Activities may include look-cover-write-check; word searches; crosswords etc.

Children are taught the letter strings/patterns/rules as outlined in the NC appendices within their English groups. A lengthier session is delivered to test last week’s spellings and to introduce the next pattern/rule; this is completed in English groups. The children then revisit the pattern/rule daily for the rest of the week. Children are given a set amount of specific words (based on letter strings/rules) to learn each week and are tested and a record of scores will be kept by teachers. Every three/four weeks children sit a ‘super spellers’ test which incorporates words taken from the previous three/four weeks and a record of scores will be kept by teachers. This is a way of ensuring that children are revisiting learnt spelling patterns/rules.

To encourage our children to be accurate and confident when writing independently for an intended audience and purpose.

To enable our children to write at length within a given genre.

To enable our children to use and understand a wide range of vocabulary, punctuation and grammatical structures.

The programmes of Study for Key stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are divided into two dimensions:

Transcription (spelling and handwriting).

Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

We see the teaching of writing as a sequential process that allows children to understand, explore and write a variety of text type. By the end of a writing unit, our children will have gained the knowledge and skills needed to be able to write confidently and independently. Children use working walls, dictionaries and thesaurus to support their development of a writing piece.  

Throughout their time at Nicol Mere, our children are given the opportunity to write a wide range of genres. These genres are carefully planned for so that our children’s experience, knowledge and understanding of these are added to and built upon at each stage. Teachers are not restricted to these and have the flexibility to modify writing genres according to the needs and interests of the children in their cohort.

The writing process follows a set sequence. The whole process of writing may take anywhere from a few days up to three school weeks to complete depending on several factors: is the genre completely new to the children? What year group are the children in? How many EGPS/ sentence structure teaching is taking place? How much editing are the children doing?

As well as writing in English lessons, children are given ample opportunities to write independently within other subjects across the curriculum. Writing is linked to the knowledge gained in these subject areas and genres that have been taught previously.

To develop our children’s skills needed to communicate effectively across a range of contexts and audiences.

To equip our children with a broad, deep and rich vocabulary.

We understand the importance of spoken language in our children’s development across our whole school curriculum. The quality and variety of language that our children hear and speak is vital for developing their language and grammar. We encourage our children to use correct spoken language and grammar and this is modelled continually by adults. Opportunities to practise speaking and listening are planned for within English lessons using discussion, debating, presenting and drama. These opportunities are not limited solely to English lessons but are used across all subjects and within the wider school setting: assemblies, class performances, school council discussions and when speaking to visitors.

We understand how important spoken language is and how this links to writing.