English: Writing
At Handcross, we understand that reading and writing are entwined. We use rich, high quality texts as a stimulus for writing from which children can ‘magpie’ words and phrases. English lessons are creative, engaging and - where possible - multi-sensory, involving pictures and videos, drama techniques, themed days and / or hands-on experiences to inspire writing.
Writing opportunities are purposeful so that children know WHY they are writing and WHO they are writing for. Children have opportunity to experiment with writing different genres and styles of text, including narratives, non-fiction pieces and poetry. They are taught to ‘think like authors’ and are encouraged to take risks when making decisions about their work.
From an early age, children experience the whole writing ‘journey’ from planning, drafting, re-drafting (through proof-reading, revising and editing in collaboration with their teacher) and finally 'publishing' their piece.
Children complete high quality cross-curricular writing in foundation subjects, such as history, geography and computing.
'Handcross Times' Example (KS1)'Handcross Times' Example (KS2)The Writing Revolution
As a school, we have explored and adopted core principles from ‘The Writing Revolution’ (Hochman and Wexler, 2017) in order to develop children’s cohesion, clarity and stamina for writing. Children develop ‘building blocks’ of writing through explicit teaching of sentence and – later - paragraph construction.
We understand that to improve writing skills, practice must be specific, focused and taught in a careful sequence of small, logical steps and, as such, we have developed a progression document which outlines when specific objectives are introduced, although these continue to be revised and embedded in subsequent year groups.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
In the Infants, daily phonics lessons are taught using the Read, Write, Inc. programme. You can find out more here! Children learn the 44 phonemes (sounds) of the English language, the corresponding graphemes (a letter or group of letters) and how to ‘segment’ words into sounds in order to spell them.
In the Juniors, children have discrete spelling and grammar lessons in which they learn and practise key skills needed for writing. Targeted phonics teaching is also provided for older children, as / when required.
All children have access
to 'Spelling Shed'; an effective and engaging interactive spelling programme. Children have a highly personalised account which they can log into to play games designed to help them learn target spellings.
Spelling Shed (link to website)
Celebrating Writing at Handcross
We plan special events throughout the year to celebrate and promote love of writing. These these include visits, talks and workshops with inspirational children's authors and illustrators; in recent years, we have been lucky enough to work with M.P.Robertson, Julia Donaldson, Vashti Hardy, David Fuller, Thomas Taylor, Danielle Verbeeten, J.J.Arcanjo, Eve Ainsworth and Hannah Peckham and many more!
We were thrilled that author Sue
Hendra officially opened our
amazing playground writing shed
for us during her visit!
‘Superstar writer’ awards are regularly awarded to one child in each class to celebrate a high standard of writing which demonstrates creativity and authorial intent. The work of the winners is celebrated and shared in assembly. They receive a superstar writer pencil and their work and photo is displayed in the corridor to inspire others.
