George Grenville
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Writing
Developing Early Writing
Through our Little Wandle phonics programme, we develop children’s writing skills by teaching them to apply their knowledge of sounds and letters to spell words accurately. From the early stages of oral blending and sound recognition in Nursery, children progress to forming letters, segmenting words into individual sounds and using their phonics knowledge to write words and sentences. In Reception and Year 1, daily phonics lessons provide regular opportunities to practise letter formation, spelling and sentence construction, helping children make clear links between reading and writing. Children are encouraged to apply their learning independently across the curriculum, using their growing knowledge of phonics to express their ideas, record their learning and communicate meaning through writing. Regular assessment and targeted support ensure that children receive the teaching and practice they need to develop confidence, accuracy and increasing independence as young writers.
Writing at George Grenville Academy
Children are inspired and motivated to write through understanding of a writing process across the school:
- A high-quality stimulus (book or visual literacy) which provokes children’s interests.
- Appreciation of the techniques and skills used by the author to engage their reader
- Opportunities to engage in a range of genres in response to stimulus text
- Sentence building, using ‘7 Super Sentences’ developing to Alan Peat sentences across Key Stages.
- Grammar teaching to suit genre of writing – taught within the context of (and incidental to) the model text
- Quality modelled writing incorporating taught grammatical features.
- Independent writing to demonstrate final outcome.
- Guided opportunities to consciously write for the purpose of engaging an audience, including editing and developing language, through to producing ‘published’ pieces.
- Feedback through learning conversations and written marking based on child’s writing targets.
- Planning & books for phonics will be supported through the RWI programme. In Key Stage Two, planning formats enable shared focus on reading skills according to age and ability.
- Spelling: after phonics understanding is secure, children move on to spelling learning through lessons using the No Nonsense spelling programme, complemented by the Key Stage Two subscription to SpellZone online spelling programme.
- Continuous cursive handwriting is taught, encouraged and celebrated in school with the award of pen licences.
