Curriculum Intent

At St Mary’s we follow the National Curriculum expectations for the teaching of Writing. The teaching of writing is closely linked to reading and pupils are taught to draw upon their range of reading experiences and use them as models for writing. Talk for Writing is used as a key strategy in the teaching of Writing, where book talk and language development form key components to the teaching sequence. Planning, interaction, collaboration, mutual support and feedback are integral in our teaching of writing at St Mary’s, to enable pupils to understand and engage in writing as a process. An extensive range of purposes, forms and audiences for writing are  incorporated into our long term planning, so that pupils understand the choices facing a writer and how to vary writing outcomes depending on audience and purpose. The teacher plays a crucial role in the development of writing through modelling the writing process and teaching at the point of writing (e.g. guided writing).

Our writing curriculum enables pupils to:

• Know, understand, and be able to write in a range of genres and text types

• To write for real or imagined purposes

• Plan, draft, discuss, revise and edit their own writing, and develop into reflective writers

• Know that writing is different from speaking

• Write clearly, accurately and coherently

• To recognise that writing should have a clear purpose and audience

• To adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

• Develop understanding that writing is both essential to thinking, investigating, organising and learning, and enjoyable in its own right

• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• Make connections between pupils’ reading and writing so that they have clear models for writing

• Through reading and writing, develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness

• Have fluent and legible handwriting

• Use punctuation correctly

Curriculum Implementation Y1 – Y6

The Talk for writing system follows this general structure:

Handwriting

Neat, fluent handwriting allows any individual to work more quickly and productively. In order to achieve this, children follow a handwriting scheme – Treasure House Handwriting. Treasure House Handwriting is a comprehensive programme designed to support children through the stages of learning a clear, fluent, legible and fast style of joined writing from EYFS to Y6.

The programme overview for Treasure House Handwriting can be found here.

Treasure House Handwriting Overview

Grammar

A Guide to New Curriculum Grammar Terminology

Grammar skills and knowledge are taught through English lessons as part of the overall writing process. At St Mary and All Saints, we follow the Pie Corbett Grammar Progression which can be found here.

Pie Corbett Grammar Progression

Speaking and Listening

These skills are vital in all learning and social situations. We encourage the children to listen carefully to others and to speak clearly and confidently in discussions. Children explore, develop and sustain ideas through talk. Children are offered many opportunities for taking part in a variety of presentations and productions within St

Mary’s, at the local church and in the wider community to build their confidence, enjoyment and mastery of language.

We believe that children learn best when:

• Oracy underpins learning in all subjects. There is a combination of carefully planned spoken, practical and written.

• They are encouraged to be confident communicators in all lessons, assemblies and community events.

• The skills needed for successful group discussion, formal debate, and speech making are explicitly taught throughout the school. Oracy teaching underpins all teaching and learning in the Early Years, closely following the EYFS Framework.

• Explicit vocabulary teaching is included in all subjects, sentence stems and the use of colourful semantics word walls. We know that strong language knowledge and skills form the foundation of learning, starting in our EYFS provision.

• The learning environment ensures Communication Friendly Classrooms.

EYFS

At St Mary’s we support the development of linking sounds to letters and understanding that from this we can read and write. It is vital that children understand that print carries meaning and that they are able to engage with this essential element of communication and the high importance it holds. We actively promote the importance of reading and writing, which is done through stories, songs, poems, mark making and writing in a variety of different contexts and for different purposes using a wide range of media.

Speaking and Listening

The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build

children’s language effectively. Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.