Writing
At
Newport
At Newport Community School Primary Academy, English is at the heart of the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated, global citizens. The overarching aim of our English curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop children’s love of literature through widespread reading and writing for pleasure.
To equip children with the necessary skills and knowledge, our writing sequences follow a three-step approach which is adapted from the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach: familiarisation with a text; practising writing and then writing an independent piece linked to the text being studied. Finally, after writing their independent piece we focus on proof reading and editing before producing a 'polished piece' which enables children to focus upon the transcriptional skill of handwriting. At Newport Community School Primary Academy, purpose and audience is at the heart of writing; therefore, when investigating a new text, children are inspired by quality texts and focus upon how writers create the effect and impacts on the reader before developing their own writing in the same style; our use of ‘Writing Rectangles’ aids children’s understanding of this. Writing outcomes are linked to our Learning Explorations where the link is purposeful.
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To enable children to become fluent writers, we support children from Early Years to hold their writing tool correctly and within Early Years we teach letter formation based on the Nelson Handwriting programme. At the end of Year 1, children are then introduced to the basic joins which are continued to be built upon throughout school. Handwriting is practised throughout the week and handwriting guidelines support children.
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Children use phonic knowledge to spell, and this is taught throughout our phonics programme: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. From Year 2 onwards, the No Nonsense Spelling Programme is used to teach the objectives set out in the National Curriculum.