Writing
Our vision
Throughout the school writing is taught as a process and a life skill. Children are expected and encouraged to apply the same thought and care into all of their writing activities across the curriculum. We build on the skills the pupils learn each year.
- spell a range of homophones;
- spell words that are often misspelt (Appendix 1);
- use understand and use prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them;
- place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with regular plurals and in words with irregular plurals;
- use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary.
Our curriculum
Writing
What is taught:
At Park Hill Junior school, the importance of writing with a reader in mind is central to the teaching of writing. We aim to develop children as writers through a variety of creative and interactive means. Many of our lessons follow the teaching sequences of the Power of Reading to explore high quality texts in depth, enhancing reading comprehension and providing meaningful contexts and purposes for writing.
How it is taught:
There is a strong emphasis on the importance of the process of being a writer and weekly writing sessions will typically consist of: discussion and exploration of a text; planning the writing; an extended writing session followed by editing and redrafting and finally publishing. Pupils are empowered to take responsibility for their writing through peer and self-evaluation. Teacher conferencing and in depth marking enable pupils to meet the next steps in their development as writers.
The importance of writing across the curriculum is highlighted by the use of English sessions to develop writing in other curriculum areas, so that students are aware that writing takes many forms and is an intrinsic part of daily life.
Grammar and punctuation
What is taught:
Good grammar and punctuation underpins successful writing. Children are taught that good grammar and punctuation gives meaning to their writing.
How it is taught:
Grammar lessons are embedded into the writing the children will be engaged in that week. This ensures that pupils get relevant and meaningful practise of the grammar concept being taught.
Link to writing websites