'I LOVE writing. Your mind sort of flattens onto the page.'
Y4 pupil
Writing
At Markington Primary School we have carefully built a curriculum which, teaches children to:
‘write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences’, with ‘an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar’, and ‘fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting’. .DFE National Curriculum for England – 2014
...based on four main purposes of writing across KS1 & KS2 - writing to entertain. inform, persuade, and discuss:
Using research from the EEF; the work of Alan Peat and Michael Tidd; and our knowledge of the school catchment and our pupils; we have built a curriculum which supports children to develop their writing skills, and become confident in their manipulation of words, enabling them to become articulate communicators, with ‘a strong command of the spoken and written language’.
Our writing curriculum, high-quality phonics/ spelling lessons, poetry curriculum, discrete handwriting lessons, and daily story time, exposes children to a wide range of texts, giving opportunities to read, share, perform, write – and enjoy, a rich diet of language - and high-quality texts play a central role in our wider curriculum.
Our curriculum is based on a two year rolling program, with a 50% focus on writing to entertain, and regular opportunities to revisit objectives, giving our children the skills to become secure and confident writers.
Please Note: We have built a new, strengthened curriculum which we will implement fully in 2022-23. In ‘21-‘22 as we continue to adapt our curriculum to meet the needs of our children post-lockdown, and make the gentle transition from the old to the new, we will follow our ‘Covid Year D Curriculum’, which will be blended in from Jan ‘22.
Spelling
At Markington Church of England Primary and Nursery School we support our pupils to be able to spell quickly and accurately by teaching them a range of strategies, rules and conventions systematically and explicitly. We give spelling a high profile, responding to individual needs and National Curriculum expectations.
Children begin by learning about the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and develop a greater understanding of morphology (word structure), orthography (spelling structure) and etymology (word origins & history) as they progress through the Early Years Foundation Stage, KS1 and KS2. By becoming confident spellers, pupils are then able to focus on the skills of composition, sentence structure and precise word choice within their writing.
At Markington School we support our pupils to be able to spell quickly and accurately by teaching them a range of strategies, rules and conventions systematically and explicitly. We give spelling a high profile, responding to individual needs and National Curriculum expectations.
Children begin by learning about the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and develop a greater understanding of morphology (word structure), orthography (spelling structure) and etymology (word origins & history) as they progress through the key stages. By becoming confident spellers, pupils are then able to focus on the skills of composition, sentence structure and precise word choice within their writing.
In Reception, children's spelling is closely matched to their reading, and follows the structure of Little Wandle. As they progress through Year 1, their skills build, and these foundations are built on, and the content of their spelling programme is matched to applying their phonics in a systematic school programme of study. This builds knowledge in a systematic progression, aligned with the National Curriculum, through to Year 6.
Spelling in Year 2 and KS2
We teach a systematic programme of spelling rules, letters strings and conventions, in class, and provide children with the opportunity to practise these skills in a variety of activities. We also teach the children strategies to help them to learn specific spellings (in line with the National Curriculum requirement ‘wordlists’) through regular practise of these words in whole class work.
In KS2 (Y3,4,5,6) the national curriculum is grouped into two sections – Y3/4 and Y5/6 – this means that children have two years to learn each of these curriculum spelling requirements. Each 2-year block contains two elements – spelling rules & patterns; and statutory word lists.
Spelling Rules/ Patterns
Spelling knowledge is built progressively enabling children to learn about common letter 'strings' and patterns: e.g. words containing ‘ight’.
This helps children to build the skills necessary to apply these rules to unknown words they want to write, rather than learning to spell a list of unconnected words.
Statutory Words
A set of ‘statutory’ words. The lists are a mixture of words pupils frequently use in their writing and those which they often misspell. The government acknowledges that ‘some of the listed words may be thought of as quite challenging, but the 100 words in each list can easily be taught within the four years of key stage 2 alongside other words that teachers consider appropriate’. E.g. possession, probably, acidentally(Y3/4) and mischievous, harass, pronunciation (Y5/6)
The statutory words & spelling rules/ patterns are taught and practised regularly within school using a variety of strategies.