“If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot, and write a lot.” Stephen King.
We aim to ensure that every child receives a well-rounded learning experience and becomes a fluent reader, a skilled writer and confident speaker so that children can be the best that they can be and have aspirations of themselves now, and in the future. The reading and writing of Standard English, alongside proficient language development, is the key to unlocking both the rest of the academic curriculum and ensuring the development of independent citizens with the potential to make a positive contribution to wider society. Consequently, we aim to ensure that our children are confident, independent learners who are fluent in the fundamental basic skills of speaking, listening, reading, writing and spelling.
We believe our children need to develop a secure knowledge base in writing which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. A secure foundation in writing skills is crucial to high quality education and we will give our children the tools that they need to participate fully as a member of society.
English teaching should be thought provoking, raise questions, and encourage individual flair whilst being rooted in the rigorous application of accurate basic skills. We have planned a sequence of progressive steps with significant opportunities to practise and consolidate learning built in.
The importance of talk, including opportunities for role play, retelling stories, reciting poetry, debate and performance, is critical to developing children’s vocabulary and language. If children can say it, then they will have greater understanding when they read it and be more able to write it.
Spelling is taught daily using the Sounds-Write scheme to finely tune the spelling and reading of all children at Cockton Hill. We continue to revise the sounds and spellings of the Extended Code progressing through the Sounds-Write units. We will continue to practise reading and spelling polysyllabic words.
Grammar lessons are closely matched to writing. We have a two-weekly writing cycle to ensure children have the opportunity to explore writing styles, develop the skills needed to be successful writers, plan, write and redraft. Writing genre are taught in sequence to ensure that the children experience a range of writing. Through novel studies, the children are exposed to different writing styles. Writing is linked to high quality class texts that have been carefully selected and allocated to each class on a one text per half-term basis. This writing is developmental throughout the school and children are taught the different organisational features along with sentence, grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. Opportunities for writing are also created across the curriculum to ensure that skills taught are applied in other subjects.
