Kirkheaton Primary School

We have many ways of developing fluent writers. Our main aim in writing is to develop confidence, creativity, accuracy and a well developed skill to manipulate sentences to create effect. Our sentence types enable children to learn different ways to be creative in writing and also link these to the technical aspects of language. Teachers use a ‘cold write’ or a ‘pre-assessment’ and a ‘hot write’, or a post assessment to find out children’s knowledge and application of writing skills. The teacher then analyses what the children are not yet doing automatically, what linguistic features they are not yet able to apply and which spellings/grammatical errors they may be making. The teacher then plans a series of lessons to help children to learn, remember and apply the necessary skills to writing. Children practise, edit, polish and up-level pieces of writing and then complete their post assessment.  All our language work is linked to our topic work which embeds skills within a context. Children learn how to manipulate language and then use this to express themselves in topics such as “why was Neil Armstrong brave? Or “Why is London such a cool place to live?”

 

Sentence types we teach at Kirkheaton In order to help children improve their writing, we encourage them to use a range of different sentence types. To help with this, we have given each one a name to match an aspect of the sentence, for example: a a choo is named as it helps children to remember that two adjectives can be used to describe a noun. Each different type of sentence has a special name and pictures/sound effects. Children are taught which sentences are good for which genre. They get very efficient at including these types of sentences for effect in their writing. These sentence types help children to understand the more complex grammatical devices such as subordinate clauses or embedded clauses. We use the sentence type name to begin their understanding then start to introduce children to the technical names as they progress through Key Stage 2.

 

Teaching genre types in writing at Kirkheaton -  We use a set of prompts for each genre so the children know what they need to include and learn this consistently so they can apply it effectively. Persuasion – What I think, Why I think it 1, Why I think it 2, Why I think it 3, what some people think, why I still think it Argument – What I am comparing, same or different 1, same or different 2, same or different 3, mainly the same or mainly different. Newspaper report – Headline, byline, Lead, Body, Sources, Illustration and caption Explanation – How, how + detail, steps, steps + detail, sum up and WOW Recount – WWWWWH, Before we, First, next then we, Did/liked, only exciting, main thing/best bit Non-chronological report – All about + WOW, Everything about 1, everything about 2, everything about 3, the best thing about + WOW Instruction – how to, what you need, how to make, do or play it, how you know it worked Story writing is split into Scene setting, character creation, action and conclusion. There are common elements identified that writers need to do at each level – this provides consistency of teaching story writing.

 

We practise handwriting in school every day. We teach children basic letter formation using lead in and lead out strokes to enable them to develop their cursive and joined style of writing.  Joined up writing enables children to write fluently with ease.

 

SPAG stands for spelling, punctuation and grammar. This is an extremely important aspect of the curriculum and is intrinsically linked to both reading and writing. It is taught in school both discretely and will be seen embedded in to every lesson. Children learn the specific vocabulary for grammar, what it is and how it is used, for example – they will learn that a describing word is called an adjective, they will learn where you find them in the structure of a sentence and how to use them effectively. Spelling patterns and families are taught in every class, as well as sight words. This is done three times a week and practised in a variety of different ways. There are some very high expectations of what children will be able to use and identify in the language they use. By Year 6 children are expected to be able to ‘use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely’ and ‘use relative clauses beginning with who, when, which, where, whose, that or with an implied (ie omitted) relative pronoun. Year 2 and Year 6 children take a national test at the end of the year which asks them to apply their knowledge and understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Examples of these tests are on our website or on www.gov.uk

 

Reading is developed in several different ways throughout school. We use a rounded approach to reading where we develop all areas of reading. Word decoding, enjoyment of reading, understanding of what we read and a wide understanding of vocabulary are all essential skills we teach regularly. Early reading skills focus on decoding and phonics application. Teachers use class reading sessions to teach the skills of reading such as, decoding; retrieval and inference; analysing and evaluating texts and authorial intent and other reading strategies.

 

Read, Write, Inc (RWI) and Jolly Phonics are both synthetic phonics programme that we use from nursery throughout school. It is a systematic approach to teaching children how letters join together to make sounds then words. It is supported by phonics based reading material which we send home to compliment the programme.

 

ERIC – Everyone reading in class ERIC time is often used to get children reading at the same time and developing a love of reading. Promotion of the pleasure of books and reading is the focus for this time, as is reading stamina and concentration.

 

Individual reading - Teachers identify children who need regular individual reading sessions with teachers or with other adults.

 

Reading at home - All children are encouraged to read at home as often as possible. Children are given a levelled book or can independently choose from an appropriate, age related selection, to read with their families.

 

Reading friends - We have a team of trained volunteers who come every Wednesday to read with identified children. This gives children 20 minutes to sit alongside their friend and enjoy their book. Not only does this help children develop their reading skills, but their engagement and confidence grow whilst they have their friend.

 

All aspects of English are important to us; however we are currently focusing on helping as many children as possible to achieve higher order skills needed in both reading and writing. In reading, this may involve them being able to access more difficult texts and to be able to give evidence from different parts of the text when answering questions. In writing, they will be taught to use ambitious vocabulary and show links throughout their paragraphs.