Writing

Our English curriculum is designed to encourage and inspire all pupils to read and write confidently across both fiction and non-fiction, developing their knowledge of themselves and the world around them. We aim to establish a life long love of reading, one which will help our children to succeed in their future endeavours. It is our intention that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils will be able to read fluently and with confidence. 

At Colebourne, we believe that all pupils should be able to communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions confidently through writing. This, paired with a wide vocabulary base and solid foundations in grammar, punctuation and spelling, will ensure that all children will be able to write for a range of purposes and audience. We also believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, through the use of the drafting, editing and publishing stages of writing. 

Phonics and Early Reading:

We teach Phonics through the SoundsWrite approach. This starts in our Nursery class and continues until children are able to decode and blend to form words. The SoundsWrite programme places an emphasis on focussing on the sounds heard in words. Teachers and teaching assistants delivering this programme follow a set of structured lesson plans ensuring that there is a consistency in delivery across the school. 

Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling and Handwriting:

These skills are taught through the writing sequence where they can provide support or depth to the context. We also focus on these areas in separate, short sessions to help children retain the grammatical knowledge and offer a chance to practise the skills. 

Writing:

We teach writing through the Talk4Writing approach, which enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing, children are helped to write in the same style. The structure of a writing units is:

• Cold task – (completed prior to the start of the unit to ensure that targets can be generated and planning tailored to meet the children’s specific learning needs)
• Creative Hook – used to excite the children and engage them into the writing journey.
• Model Text introduced with a story/text map to support the learning –which has been tailored in light of the cold task.
• Vocabulary focus – vocabulary is discussed with children at every opportunity, exemplified and put into context. Vocabulary is displayed around the environment.
• Oral retelling and immersion of the text
• Sentence level skills work – Short bursts writing linked to devices highlighted from targets.
• Comprehension – reading as a reader to understand the text. 
• Identifying the underlying structure of the text (Boxing up)
• Sentence level skills work – Short bursts writing linked to vocabulary, grammar or text structure highlighted from targets.
• Innovation – pupils make changes to the text. They learn, rehearse and write a new version of the text.
• Independent application – Pupils must have the opportunity to independently apply the skills they have learnt in English and whenever possible be given the opportunity to apply these skills across the curriculum.
• Publishing and celebrating: Children are encouraged to show case their work through different publishing and presenting opportunities.