Writing
Intent
At Oakdale we believe that English is the central core of our curriculum, an area that underpins all other subject areas. English promotes spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and promotes and values citizenship, through using a variety of written genres where children can express a point of view, entertain, inform and discuss. We believe that children should undertake activities which are exciting and which they can relate to their own personal experiences. Activities, which can be applied at home as well as school, are important to ensure progress.
How is writing taught?
Sentence Stacking
Our approach to writing focuses on building the skills needed to write accurate and cohesive sentences. The focus of literacy lessons in school is always on writing and how writing is created and structured. These lessons are broken into three learning chunks of approximately 20 minutes. The first part of each chunk is the initiate phase, where children are encouraged to gather ideas which will help them when they come to write their sentences. Ideas can also be modelled by the teacher and children should share ideas as a class. The next phase is the model. Teachers write a model sentence which has a specific grammar, vocabulary, or punctuation focus. This focus in every lesson ensures that GPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) skills are embedded, in context, over time. Children are then expected to use this model to create their own sentences in the enable phase; using some of the ideas they came up with previously. Children use a double page for their writing in each lesson, which is completed in yellow literacy skills books, the left-hand side is split into three sections for their ideas and their sentences are written on the right-hand side. Writing lessons are highly structured and focused, with children being given a good level of adult support.
Progression
Children progress in their grammar, punctuation and spelling as they move through school. This is guided by the Primary National Curriculum for English. Each year they are taught new and more complex skills which allow them to become more proficient writers.
Assessment
Writing is teacher assessed each half term. At the end of a writing unit children produce a piece of independent written work in their purple writing outcome books. They are given at least a lesson for planning, and this can be guided by an adult. When they complete their written work, it is done so independently with minimal adult guidance. Children are also expected to edit and improve their own work.
Support at home
Spelling Shed - Encourage children to access Spelling Shed each week and complete assignments set. This helps children to embed their understanding of spelling rules.