Literacy

Writing

Intent: that children at St Cuthbert’s achieve success as writers.

By the end of KS1 children can apply their phonic knowledge to write fiction and non-fiction texts after reading and rehearsing orally. Simple and increasingly complex sentence structures are used to begin to make writing more cohesive. Children are familiar with the planning, drafting and editing process.

By the end of Ks2 children apply their phonic knowledge to spell polysyllabic words. They write more complex fiction and non-fiction texts after reading and rehearsing orally. Their vocabulary and sentence structure is more complex and is used more creatively for effect. Children understand the purpose of planning, drafting, editing and redrafting and writing cohesively.

Implementation

• From EYFS children learn sound letter correspondence through the daily teaching of Sounds Write . Staff say “ Tell me the sounds I need to write” or “ Let’s say the sounds as we write the word”
• Children are taught that the same sound can be recorded in different spellings . Staff say “ Same sound but a different spelling”.
• Children learning polysyllabic words are asked to listen for the syllables when they hear a word and spell the word in syllables. They think what letters, and how many, are spelling a sound “write the word in its syllables”.
• Sounds Write teaching includes writing on whiteboards and 2 to 3 tasks in books including weekly sentence dictation.
• To ensure children have models for writing Talk for Writing is used across school. Children read and learn a story structure and language which they then retell and innovate with.
• In KS 1 and 2 oral rehearsal is key to learning how to assimilate vocabulary orally before it can be written and understood. In Ks2 this is also taught through a Shakespeare term where drama forms a key role in learning.
• Our Non- negotiables for writing ensure sentence structure and grammar are a clear focus in teaching and when children write.
• Before commencing a piece of writing children will be taught the necessary vocabulary and grammar skills. They will have identified the features in model texts, thus setting pupils up to succeed.
• In Y1 children are expected to edit and improve work in red (this might be adding capital letters and spelling key words correctly). From Y2 editing and improving might also involve adding or improving adjectives or varying and using conjunctions.
• Marking and feedback alongside writing conversations are integral in supporting pupils to improve and redraft work.
• Where possible there is a purpose for writing and at St Cuthbert’s strong links are developed between foundation subjects and writing.
• Children are expected to apply their writing skills when completing written tasks across the curriculum.
• Termly moderation in teams informs school data and ensure consistency in standards across classes.
• Half termly moderation by SLT and Cluster moderation.

Impact

Attainment at end of key stages is in line with national expectation or above in teacher assessment and SATs.

Intent

At St Cuthbert’s, we believe that reading is a key life skill that opens up a world of opportunity and therefore is central to all that we do. Our intention is to enable all children to become fluent, confident, lifelong readers and writers. The teaching of phonics, in a systematic way, is of the highest priority.

Implementation

At St Cuthbert’s, the discrimination of sound is taught to our youngest learners in Nursery, after which a systematic, synthetic phonics programme is taught on a daily basis from Reception Class until the end of KS1 (Y2). Beyond this, phonics is taught to those children who have been identified as still requiring support as they journey through KS2.

The teaching of phonics is progressive, but also allows the children to rehearse and review previous learning. This enables the children to know more and remember more.

Our chosen accredited phonics programme is Sounds-Write. This programme moves from the sounds in words to the written word – hence the title, Sounds-Write. To support pupils to be able to read and write with fluency and accuracy they need to have conceptual knowledge, code knowledge, and develop specific skills.

Conceptual Knowledge

1. Letters are symbols (spellings) that represent sounds.
2. A sound may be spelled by 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters. (Dog, street, night, dough).
3. The same sound can be spelled in more than one way. (Rain, break, gate, stay).
4. Many spellings can represent more than one sound. (Head, seat, break).

Skills

1. Blending – the ability to push sounds together to build words. (/k/ /a/ /t/ = cat). 2. Segmenting – the ability to pull apart the individual sounds in words. (pig: /p/ /i/ /g/).              3. Phoneme manipulation – the ability to insert sounds into and delete sounds out of words. (This skill is necessary to test out alternatives for the spellings that represent more than one sound) (spelling Is it /o/ as in hot, /oe/ as in no, /u/ as in son?)

The programme starts with what children acquire naturally, and from a very early age, the sounds of their own language. We teach that letters represent those sounds when we read and write. The programme is taught through specifically targeted units of work and within each lesson children will develop skills in reading and writing/spelling.

Alphabet Code - Initial and Extended

Our youngest children in Nursery learn to discriminate sounds at every opportunity. In Reception Class, our children begin work on the Initial Code. Within this Code, they will learn to blend, segment and manipulate sounds in spellings. The children will then move on to the Extended Code. (One sound different spellings/One spelling different sounds).

Impact

By the time our children leave KS1, the majority of children will have passed their Phonics Screening Check and will be confident, fluent readers and writers. Journeying through KS2, they will develop the firm foundations in reading and writing and will be well placed to make good progress at Key Stage 3. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. This is repeated again in Y2 for those children who did not pass the screening check in Y1. (See example check).

Additional Information:

Supporting your child to read:

If you would like to help your child to read and write, why not register for an online course which is in two parts. The first part is free. If you are interested, click on the link below.

https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

Sounds-Write App: This App has been specifically designed to work with an iPad. You will find lots of information about how your child is learning to read/spell and write. This app offers a variety of activities to develop the skills of blending and segmenting, sound spelling correspondence, word reading and writing and some sentences reading and writing. Visit the Sounds-Write website to learn more.

https://sounds-write.co.uk/